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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



American Explorations 



IN 



The Ice Zones. 



THE EXPEDITIONS OF DeHAVEN, KANE, RODGERS, HAYES, HALL, SCHWATKA, 

AND DeLONG ; THE RELIEE VOYAGES FOR THE JEANNETTE BY THE 

U. S. STEAMERS CORWIN, RODGERS, AND ALLIANCE ; THE 

CRUISES OF CAPTAINS LONG AND RAYNOR 

OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE: 

WITH A BKIEF NOTICE OF 

THE ANTARCTIC CRUISE UNDER LIEUTENANT WILKES, 1840, 

AND OF THE LOCATIONS AND OBJECTS OF THE U.S. 

SIGNAL SERVICE ARCTIC OBSERVERS. 



^reparclJ ©fjtcflg from Official .Sources 

BY PEOF. J. B. "iN'OUESE, U.S.N. 

A EDITOR OF "HALL'S SECOND EXPEDITION. 



n 




BOSTON : 
D. LOTHEOP AND COMPANY, 

Franklin Street. 
LONDON : TRIJBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL. 

\ 



Copyright, 

BV D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY, 

1884. 






\^ 



C. J. PETERS AND SON, 
ELECTROTYPEKS AND STEREOTYPERS, 

145 High Stbest. 



TO 

THE AMERICAN EXPLORERS, 

NAVAL, MILITARY, AND CIVIL, 

AND 

TO THE MEMORY OF THE GALLANT SPIRITS 

WHO OPENED UP THEIR 

PATHWAY. y-^ 



TABLE or CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Arctic regions, sea and land — Comparison of the ice zones of the North and 
the South — The problem of the Pole and the Northwest Passage — Chief attempts for 
its solution — Participation in these attempts by the American Colonies — American 
Toyages resulting from the Franklin Expedition, and their renewal in 1850 ... 17 

CHAPTER II. 

The Grinnell Expeditions — Reviving Arctic exploration — President Taylor's 
message to Congress transmitting correspondence with Lady Franklin — Eesolution 
authorizing the expedition approved, May 5, 1850 — Mr. Grinnell' s memorial supported 
by Clay, Seward, and Pearce, in the Senate — OflB.cers of the First Expedition — In- 
structions of Secretary Preston to DeHaven, who sails from New York, May 22, 1850 

— Dispatches from St. Johns and the Whale-Ship Islands — DeHaven' s report of 
the graves found at Beechey Island — He arrives at Griffith Island — Drifts north- 
ward — Geographical discoveries — Eastward into Baffin's Bay — Freed from the 
ice, June 10, 1851 — Again released, Aug. 18 — Sails from Holsteinborg, Sept. 6 — 
Arrives at New York, Sept. 30 41 

' CHAPTER III. 

THE SECOND GEINNELL EXPEDITION, 1853-55. 
The expedition designed by Kane — Contributors — Paper read before the Geo- 
graphical Society of New York—Assistance by the Secretary of the Navy— Officers of 
the ''Advance "— Fiskernaes — Crossing Melville Bay— The "Advance " moored to 
an iceberg — Rensselaer Harbor — Provision depots for spring explorations — The 
observatory — Daily ship life — Morton's reported Polar Sea — The brig fixed in 
the ice — Attempt to reach Beechey Island — Nine of the company leave /or the 
•South; their return — Scurvy — The brig abandoned — Boat and sledge journey 
southward — Rescue of Kane by Captain Hartstene at Disco — Arrival at New York 

— Reports to the Department — Summary of results — Appreciation by the British 
Government— Publications of the narrative — Kane's failing health — Request of 
Lady Franklin to him to undertake a new expedition — He sails for England — 
Return voyage — Death — Funeral honors at Havana, New Orleans, Cincinnati, 
Columbus, Baltimore, and Philadelphia — Kane's religious confidence . ... . 66 



8 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER lY. 
EXPLORATIONS OF LIEUTENANT JOHN RODGERS, U. S. N. 

The Exploration of the *'Vincennes " a part of the United States Expedition under 
Commander Ringgold — Appropriation by Congress — Objects — Secretary Kennedy's 
instructions — Sickness of Commander Ringgold — Lieutenant Rodgers succeeds to 
the command — Loss of the " Porpoise " — The "Yincennes" leaves Hong Kong 
for her Arctic cruise — Arrives at Petropaulovski — Condition of the town — Enters 
Bering Straits — Leaves a party under Lieutenant Brooke at Glassenapp — Habits 
and customs of the natives — The "Vincennes" in the Arctic Sea — Anchors in 
latitude 72° 5' North — Sails over the tail of Herald Shoal and locates Herald Island 

— Can see no trace of Plover Island — Approaches Wrangell Land — Returns to St. 
Lawrence Bay and Glassenapp for Lieutenant Brooke's party — Arrives at San Fran- 
cisco, Oct. 13, 1855 — Suggestions for the publication of the full narrative .... 108 

CHAPTER V. 

EXPLORATIONS OF DR. ISAAC I. HAYES, 1860-61. 

Design of Dr. Hayes for a new exploration suggested while on his first voyage with 
Kane — His plans supported by the Smithsonian and other institutions — Sails from 
Boston with Sonntag, July 7, 1860 — Arrives off Proven on the twenty-fourth day 
out — Adds to his ship's company and supplies at Upernavik — Crosses Melville Bay 
in fifty-five hours to Cape York — Winters at Port Foulke — Observatory set up — 
Observations made — Experiences of the season — Death of Sonntag, Hans' account 
of it — The Arctic night described — Attempts to launch the boat on the Polar Sea 

— Highest point reached — Belief in the existence of the open sea confirmed — Ex- 
periences of recent navigators compared with this — Explorations and surveys made 
on the return voyage to the United States — Purpose of a new expedition — Recep- 
tion of the gold medals from abroad — Volumes published 132 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE GRINNELL AND HAVEN EXPEDITION OF C. F. HALL— THE 

FIRST OF HIS THREE VOYAGES, 1860-62. 

Hall's motives for his first voyage — Arctic study — Limited resources — Reasons 

for believing that some of Franklin's men still lived — Circular endorsed by leading 

men of Ohio — Generous aid by Mr. Grinnell and by Williams and Haven — Sails 

from New London — Buries his native companion, Kud-la-go — Visits Holsteinborg 

— The kayaks— The belted and the gothic icebergs —Arrives at Cornelius Grinnell 
Bay — First impressions of the natives — Destruction of the "Rescue" and the 
expedition boat — First acquaintance with Ebierbing and Too-koo-li-too — Inland 
excursion — Explorations in the spring following — Discovery that Frobisher 
" Strait" is a bay — Finding of the Frobisher relics confirmed by Barrow's history 

— Explorations in the spring and summer of 1862 — Notes of Eskimo dress, habits, 
and superstitions — Return to the United States with the two natives and their 
child 161 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HALL'S SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITION — RESIDENCE AMONG THE 
ESKIMOS, 1864-69. 

Preparatory labors — Paper before the American Geographical Society — Fro- 
bisher relics sent to London and to the Smithsonian — Lectures — Plans for the new 
voyage — Sailing of the "Monticello" — Landing at Whale Point — First inter- 
course with the natives — Feasting — Ankooting — The Key-low-tik — Walrus hunt 

— New Year's Day — Sealing — Hall's first prize — Capture of a whale — Winter quar- 
ters at Fort Hope— r Hall's daily life — Auroras — Refraction and parhelia — Native 
mapping — Unsuccessful advance westward — Franklin relics — Journey to Cape 
Weynton — Journey to Fury and Hecla Straits — A mutineer — Journey to Igloolik 

— Visit to King William Land — Franklin relics — Capture of the third whale — 
Return to the United States 199 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HALL'S YOYAGE IN THE "POLARIS." 

Early design to reach the pole — Lectures in Washington — Appropriation by 
Congress — The " Polaris" sails from New York — Arrives at Fiskernaes — U. S. S. 
"Congress" at Godhavn — Hans Hendrick — Tessuissak — North water reached 

— The " Polaris " beset at 82° 16' —Consultation —Drift to the South — Anchored 
to Providence Berg — Winter quarters — Sledge journey — Deposit in the cairn — 
Hall's death and burial — Winter of 1871-72 — Auroras— Return of the sun— The 
"Polaris" leaves the harbor — Drifts South — The separation — The ship leaking 

— House on the floe — Drift of the floe party and rescue — Relief ships sent for the 
" Polaris " — DeLong's cruise — Rescue of the Polaris party by the " Ravenscraig" 

— Hall's memorials — Medal awarded — Tablet put up by the English Expedition 

— The Eskimos Kud-la-go, Joe, Hannah, Ou-se-gong, and Abbot — Graves at 
Groton, Conn 



CHAPTER IX. 
SLEDGE JOURNEY OF LIEUTENANT SCHWATKA, U. S. A. 

Reports from Hudson's Bay which occasioned the journey — Sailing of the 
" Eothen " —Arrival at Depot Island — The true story of " The Spoon "—Decision 
to cross to King William Land —Meeting with the Innuits; their stories — Visit to 
the cairn — Remains of Lieutenant Irving, R. N., identified — .lourney to Cape 
Felix — No records found — Relics of Franklin's Expedition — Camping out and 
sledge journey, October, 1879, to March 4, 1880 — Return to the United States — 
Award of a medal by the Geographical Society of Paris — Recognition of the work 
by Congress — Renewed search for the records and journals of the Franklin Ex- 
pedition 345 



10 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. 
LIEUTENANT DeLONG'S EXPEDITION TOWARD THE POLE, 1879-81, 
The expedition DeLong's own prompting — Mr. Bennett undertakes it— Selection 
of the route — Theories — DeLong's plan — The " Jeannette " commissioned — Re- 
port of the Board of Inspection at Mare Island — Officers and Crew — Sailing from 
San Francisco — Arrival at St. Michael's — Reports of Nordenskiold — Passing the 
Straits — Attempts to reach Wrangeil and Herald Islands — Frozen in the Pack, 
September 6 — Chipp attempts the crossing to Herald Island — The "Jeannette" 
drifts northwest past Wrangeil Land — Pumping begun — Lieutenant Danenhower 
disabled — The return of the sun — Experiment of the windmill pump — DeLong 
abandons the theory of the currents — Scientific observations kept up — The frozen 
summer — Auroral phenomena— Continued drift northwest — Discovery of Jean- 
nette and Henrietta Islands — The " Jeannette " crushed — Landing on the floe — 
Discovery of Bennett Island ; description of it by Dr. Ambler — The three boats — 
Their separation — The whaleboat party land on the Lena Delta — The first cutter 
imder DeLong — Sufferings — DeLong's last entries — Danenhower's search — 
Melville's search — The dead ten found — Their burial — Return of Lieutenant 
Danenhower — Search begun by Lieutenant Harber — Engineer Melville's return — 
Appropriation to bring the bodies home — Their expected arrival 



CHAPTER XI. 

RELIEF EXPEDITIONS FOR THE "JEANNETTE "—THE TWO FIRST 

CRUISES OF THE "CORWIN"— THE CRUISES OF THE 

"RODGERS" AND "ALLIANCE." 

Tee "Cokwin's" First Chuise, 1880. 

The missing whalers — Instructions of Secretary Sherman for their search and 
for the " Jeannette " — The ship refitted at San Francisco — Arrives at Ounalaska, 
June 7th — Nipped in the pack off Cape Romanzoff, June 16th — Enters the Arctic 
Sea, 28th — -Last sight of the "Mount Wollaston" and "Vigilant" reported by 
Captain Bauldry — Visit to the cave dwellers on King's Island — The coal vein East 
of Cape Lisburne — Within seven miles of Herald Island — Wrangeil Land in sight 

— Land seen to the North — Return of the "Corwin" — Captain Hooper's notes 
of the ice — Of the habits and customs of the natives on the shores of the Arctic 

and Bering Sea 428 

Second Cruise of the " Corwin." 
Instructions of Secretary Sherman — Officers — Sailing from San Francisco — 
Onalga Pass — Ounalaska — St. Lawrence Island — Reports of the missing ships at 
Cape Serdze-Kamen — Arrival of the " Corwin " — Sledge party to search the shore 

— Plover Bay — Return to Cape Serdze — Landing on Herald Island — Character of 
the Island — Landing on Wrangeil Land — Discovery of this land by Captains Long 
and Raynor, 1867 — ^Visit to Point Barrow — Return to San Francisco — Tribute to 
DeLong 447 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11 

The Cruise of the " Rodgers." 

Petitions to Congress for relief of the " Jeannette " — Appropriation granted — 
Selection of vessel — The "Mary and Helen" purchased — A Naval Board con- 
vened for advice in regard to the search — Its officers — Suggestions — Testimony 
of ship-captains and experts — Instructions to Lieutenant R. M. Berry — The 
*'Rodgers" equipped and commissioned — Her officers — Arrives at St. Lawrence 
Bay, at Petropaulovski, Wrangell Land — Finds a harbor and explores the island 
— Reaches lat. 73° 44' — Arrives at Cape Serdze and lands a party to search for the 
missing crews — The^' Rodgers " burned — Master Putnam lost on the ice — Lieu- 
tenant Berry searches the coast — Joins Engineer Melville at Yakutsk — Learns the 
orders to Lieutenant Harber and returns home 473 

The Cruise of the U. S. Steamer " Alliance," June 16 to Oct. 11, 1881. 

Fitting out of the "Alliance " — Instructions to Commander Cooper and to Com- 
mander Wadleigh — Arrival at Reykiavik — Description of the " Jeannette " circu- 
lated — The harbor of Hammerf est, Norway — Green Bay, Spitzbergen — Tidal 
marks established — Cruise in lat. 79° — The ice barrier — Return to the United 
States under orders 485 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ANTARCTIC CRUISE OF LIEUTENANT (LATE ADMIRAL) 
CHARLES WILKES, U. S. N., 1839-40. 

The Antarctic region a terra incognita — Object of its explorations compared 
with explorations in the Arctic — National aid required — Earliest American dis- 
covery — Foreign explorations, private and national — Wilkes' cruise a part of the 
plans of the exploring expedition of 1838-42 — Organization of the squadron and its 
route — First cruise towards Cook's Ne-plus-ultra — Cruise along the icy barrier — 
Reported discovery of the continent — Award of the gold medal by Royal Geographi- 
cal Society, London — Discoveries of Ross — Scientific results — Collections in the 
National Museum, Washington 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SUMMARY OF THE EXPEDITION, BENEFICIAL RESULTS. 

The American Arctic Expeditions — Highest points reached — Value of Arctic 
explorations endorsed by Weyprecht, Maury, Henry, Bache, Barrow, and Osbom 
— Meteorological stations in the ice zones — Their purpose distinct from the Polar 
problem — Lieutenant Weyprecht' s proposition — Stations under the International 
Commission recommended by Professor Henry — Preliminary voyage of the " Flor- 
ence" — Sherman's and Kiimlien's reports — Signal Service Station at Lady Frank- 
lin Bay — Unsuccessful attempts for relief — Signal Service Station near Point 
Barrow — Preliminary reports — Geographical discovery — Benefits to the whale 
fisheries — Small number of lives lost in the expeditions — Further explorations . . 526 



ERRATA. 



Page 330. Title of Cut. For "Tyson's crew sighting the ' Kavenscraig ' off Labra- 
dor," read " Eudington's crew sighting the ' Eavenscraig.' " 
Page 353, line 20. For " 1881 " read 1818. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



f 

CuiCUMPOLAK Map Pocket. 

Map of Alaska and the Strait Pages 470, 471 



TO0oti lEngrabingg, 



In the Pack Frontispiece. 

Scaling an Iceberg 19 

Barometer of Franklin's Expedition, 38 

The Crow's Nest 55 

The Three Graves 58 

Porti-ait of Kane* (^o/ace) ... 65 

Harbor of St. Johns 69 

An Arctic Moonlight Scene {to face) 87 

Godhavn 90 

The Kane Medal 105 

Portrait of Admiral Rodgers {to 

face) 108 

Portraitof Dr. Haj^es* (^o /ace) . . 132 

Belted Iceberg 134 

Upernavik 135 

Fonlke Fiord 143 

The Best Part of a Sledge Jom-ney, 146 
Unfurling the Flags ("The Open 

Polar Sea," J. R. Osgood & Co.), 148 

A Snow Village 156 

Chart of Smith Sound ("The Open 

Polar Sea," J. R. Osgood & Co.), 159 

Vignette of Sir John Franklin . . 164 

Governor Elbors: in his Oomiak . 169 



Fagb 

170 



Eskimo Woman and Child . . 

Kyak Somerset . 171 

Gothic Iceberg ....... 172 

Loss of the " Rescue " . . . . . 175 

Nik-u-jar, the Boat Steerer . . . 176 

Eskimo Dog 177 

Eskimo Lamp 178 

Storm Bound 179 

Passing through Lupton Channel . 183 

Indian Summer Village .... 184 

One of Frobisher's " Gold Mines," 185 

Eskimo and Seal Dog 192 

Seal Hole and Igloo .... 194, 195 

Too-koo-litoo, Hall, and Ebierbing, 197 

Eskimo Lamp 198 

Sir Martin Frobisher 201 

Frobisher Bay and Grinnell Glacier 207 

Polar Bear of Hudson Strait ... 208 

Snow Partridges 212 

Hall's First Igloo, Ground-plan, 213, 214 

Game of Cup and Ball ..... 216 

Key-low-tik and Ken-toon. . . . 217 

Playing the Key-low-tik .... 219 

Sek-koons 220 



From *' The Jeannette," by Capt. Perry. Newman & Coburn PublisMng Company. 



14 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



A Walrus-Hunt 223 

A Walrus Head 224 

Grouud-plan of New Year's Day- 
Igloo 226 

Ground-plan of Igloo Built on a 

Journey 227 

Arrowtar 228 

Ebierbing Going out Sealing . . 230 

Capturing a Whale 233 

Too-koo-litoo (Hannah) .... 236 

Ar-too-a Drowned in his Kia . . 237 

Innuit Head-Ornament 238 

Now- Yarn Harbor 239 

Aurora Sketched by Hall .... 241 

Papa's Sketch of Pond Bay . . . 242 

Franklin Relics 247,248 

Bone-Charms and Knife .... 251 

The Tenting- Place . . . . . . 254 

Monument and Coast-Line . . . 255 

Hairs Boat-Log . . . .... 257 

Snow Village . . . ..... 258 

Setting out for King William 

Land • • 260 

Hall's Tablet-Covers . ... . 261 

Ivory Knives . . ._ ... . . 262 . 

Page of Hall's Note-Book . . ! . 263 

Sir John Franklin's Desk .... 266 

Hannah's Musk-Ox and Deer Horns, 268 

Fiskernaes 272 

Lichtenfels .274 

Tessuissak, or Tessiussak . . . . 277 

Shooting Walrus . . . . . . .279 

" Polaris " Passing Fitz-Clarence 

Rock ... , 281 

Working through the Ice .... 283 

" Polaris " in Thank-God Harbor . 285 

Landing Stores on the Ice . . . 287 

Shooting a Musk-Ox . . . . . 290 

The Cairn 294 

Funeral of Captain Hall .... 299 

The " Polaris " Adrift 301 



Fastening to the Berg . . . . . 303 

Mock Moons 309 

" Polaris " rounding the Berg . . 311 . 

Boat Camp 313 

House on the Floe 314 

Before Separation 315 

The Separation 317 

Polaris House, Life-Boat Cave . . 319 
Landing on Northumberland Isl- 
and 328 

Sighting the " Ravenscraig " . . 330 

Hall's Medal from Paris .... 333 

Hall's Grave . . . . . . . .338 

Ou-se-gong and Kud-lup-pa-mune . 342 
Lieutenant Schwatka (" Schwatka's 

Search," Scribner's Sons), to face 345 

Franklin's Spoon 350 

The March Southward ("Schwatka's 

Search," Scribner's Sons) . . . 355 
Cold Weather ... . . . . .357 

Eskimo Needle-Case . . . . . 362 

Lieutenant-Commander DeLong,* 

\ (to face) . . 363 

Lieutenant Chipp* 374 

Lieutenant Danenhower* . . . . 376 

Engineer Melville* . . . ... 379 

Surgeon Ambler* ...... . 382 

An Arctic Boat Journey ... . 404 

The Delta • • • .409 

The Cross* ........ . 415 

The Tomb* 4l7 

The " Corwin " in a Nip . . . . 431 

Herald Island . ... . . . . 435 

Oomiak 445 

Arctic Ravine ........ 454 

Wrangell Island . , . . . . . 465 

Map of Wrangell Island . ... 479 

The Penguins ("Wood's Natural 

History," Porter & Coates) . . 504 
The Albatross (''Wood's Natural 

History," Porter & Coates) . . 507" 



From " The Jeannette," by Capt. Perry. Newman & Coburn Publishing Company. 



This volume purposes to accredit the work of American explorers in a region toward 
which the world still looks with interest and unsatisfied inquiry. Arctic exploration will 
not soon be abandoned. However much, in this age of unprecedented advance in the 
more directly practical, it may seem to some to deserve place with the visionary only, it 
confessedly embraces problems of high value. The geographer would gladly exchange his 
dotted and broken lines for definite boundaries; the ethnologist and the Christian have 
questions to ask of this region bearing on the unity and the development of the race ; and 
the scientist awaits from the sea of the far-off North, revelations the key to which Nature 
has as yet hidden from him. 

A third of a century has passed since history cordially admitted to her domain the 
records of De Haven and Kane; Hayes and Hall gave to her their work of the succeeding 
decade ; our younger officers — De Long, Chipp, and their associates — have closed with 
their lives the latest Arctic records. 

The volumes from Kane's pen cannot be found on the shelves of a large number of our 
increasing libraries, while the publications of the United States Government, in official 
form, are too bulky for the convenience of the general reader. It is the design of the 
publishers of the volume now offered, to bring together within the reach, especially of the 
young, the labors of each American explorer, and to this desire the most cordial response 
is made from a re-study of these labors, each of which reflects honor upon our country. 
The chapters which follow embrace brief notices of the expedition for the Northwest pas- 
sage under Sir John Franklin, the voyages of Lieutenant De Haven, and of Dr. Kane, of 
the late Admiral Eodgers, Dr. Hayes, the three expeditions of C. F. Hall, the remarkable 
sledge journey of three thousand miles by Lieutenant Schwatka, U.S.A., the cruise and 
loss of the " Jeannette," and the relief expeditions sent out for De Long by the Treasury 
Department under Captain Hooper, and by the Navy Department under Lieutenant Beriy. 
To these is added a notice of the first expedition sent out by the United States for scien- 
tific purposes, that of 1838-42 under Lieutenant (late Admiral) Wilkes; the volume closes 
with a statement of the positions and objects of the Arctic Observers under the U. S. 

Signal Service. 

J. E. N. 



Washington, Dec. 1, 1883. 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS 



THE ICE ZONES. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ARCTIC REGIONS, SEA AND LAND. — C0:MPARIS0N OF THE ICE 
ZONES OF THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. — THE PROBLEM OF THE 
POLE AND THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. — CHIEF ATTEjVIPTS FOR ITS 
SOLUTION. — PARTICIPATION IN THESE ATTEMPTS BY THE A:NIERICAN 
COLONIES. — A3IERICAN VOYAGES RESULTING FROM THE FRANKLIN 
EXPEDITION, AND THEIR RENEWAL IN 1850. 

THE field of Arctic exploration includes a section of the earth's 
surface not strictly coincident with the Arctic circle of the geog- 
raphers. Countries such as South Greenland, Labrador, or 
Alaska, in the western hemisphere, or the region around. Lake Baikal 
in t e eastern, though situated as low as the sixtieth, or even the fiftieth 
para lei of north latitude, have a decidedly Arctic climate, with its 
products ; while others, as the ' coast of Norway, lying far nearer the 
Pole, but under specially favorable influ.ences, enjoy in midwinter a 
remarkably mild temperature. 

Arctic exploration has of necessity employed itself both upon the 
stormy sea and upon the snow and ice-bound land. The great ocear 
surrounding the Pole drains the northern slopes of three continents, 
receiving the waters of an estimated area of more than four and a 
quarter millions of square miles, and its river systems exceed those of 
the West Atlantic coast. Within this great basin the Pole itself is, as 
yet, shut out from access by an investing zone of probably permanent 
ice ; beyond this zone, theory still places an open sea. 

17 



18 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The uiKliscovered polar region is limited, at most points on the 
American and European sides, by about the eighty-second parallel ; on 
the north of Asia the limit is as low as the seventy-fourth degree. To 
the inner basin there are but three possible ways of entrance : the 
estuaries of Hudson's and Baffin Bays, north of America; the space 
between Greenland and Norway, north of Europe ; and* Behring's 
Straits, ^between America and Eastern Russia. 

The lands of the Arctic region are naturally divided into two well- 
marked zones, — the forests and the treeless wastes. In America the 
latter are the well-known "barrens," or "barren grounds," which yield 
a scanty subsistence to the suffering natives, and were traversed 
with so much hardship by Franklin and by those who sought for him 
by land in the explorations hereafter to be noted. In the eastern con- 
tinent thej'^ bear the name of the "tundra," often showing nothing 
more than boundless morasses or arid wastes, tracked by the feet of 
Siberian exiles and arctic explorers, including the perishing ones from 
the " Jeannette " and its survivors in their search for the lost. Over 
such scenes many weary sledge-journeys have been made, to the extent 
of more than a thousand miles each. A narrative of Arctic exploration 
leads, therefore, not only to the well-furnished ship, or even to her 
deck when housed for the winter storms, but to perilous journeys over 
tracks at times scarcely distinguishable by the most experienced ; over 
ice-floes and fissures, requiring the scaling of the rough and dizzy 
crests of the bergs. The chief scene of Arctic exploration, however, 
is upon the tempestuous sea, with its closing nips, and, at times, equally 
dangerous and sudden openings on the seaman. The mysterious waters 
hold a fascination possessed by no other region, creating and keeping 
up an indescribable longing for adventure, in which daring spirits have 
found all that makes travel exciting. 

The ice zones of the south present no such allurements. No 
continents there approach the ocean's shore, while a glance at the 
world's map shows, in the north, a preponderance of land, spread- 
ing out in such almost unbroken continuity as to tempt some to 
the theory that nearer the Pole the land masses are separated by 



ARCTIC AND ANT ART IC REGIONS COMPARED. 19 

II cliain of islands only. This essential difference in the land sur- 
faces accounts in part for the extreme difference in the summer tem- 
peratures of the tvi^o zones. The ice barrier of the south has been but 
once penetrated beyond the seventy-eighth degree. And while, even 
in Spitzbergen, vegetation ascends the mountain slopes to a height of 




SCALING AN ICEBERG. 

From Captain Hall's "Arctic Researches," published by Harper & Bros. 



three thousand feet, in every land within or near the Antarctic circle 
the snow line descends to the water's edge. Not even a moss or a 
lichen has been observed beyond south latitude 64° 12'. In Spitz- 
bergen the thermometer has risen to 58^°, but during the summer 
months spent by Sir James Ross in the Antarctic, the temperature of 
the air never once exceeded 41° 5'. No hunters there, like the Eski- 
mos, chase the seal or the walrus ; no herdsmen, like the Lapps^ follow 
the reindeer to the ocean's edge ; not a single land quadruped exists 
beyond 56° : all is one dreary, uninhabitable waste. In the north, 
coasts and valleys at equal distances from the equator are green with 
vegetation ; in the south they are wastes of ice and snow. 

The spread of the northern lands points us, as has been said, chiefly 



20 AISIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

to the causes of this difference. The plains of Siberia and of Northern 
America, warmed by the summer's sun, become centres of radiating 
heat ; but the Antarctic lands, of small extent, isolated in the midst of 
frigid waters, and chilled by the cold sea-winds, act as constant refrige- 
rators. In the north, icebergs are found in a few mountainous coun- 
tries only ; upon Antarctic lands they are more continuous, tower 
much higher, and their vast fragments perpetually maintain the low 
temperatures of the sea, detached bergs having been met with as near 
the equator as the mouth of the La Plata. In the latter regions no 
traces of warm currents have been observed beyond the fifty-fifth 
degree of south latitude ; but in the north the well-known gulf stream 
carries its powerful influence as far as Norway, Spitzbergen, and Nova 
Zembla, thus making the northern zone, by comparison, an attractive 
scene of exploration and adventure.* 

Arctic exploration may be said to have had at first but one purpose : 
to reach the Pole, and cross it from continent to continent ; and this, 
indeed, has been the chief element in the polar problem for the last 
three and a half centuries. It is the purpose of this volume to refer 
briefly to the events giving rise to this problem, to the persistent efforts 
for its» solution, and to the beneficial results secured by these seemingly 
useless labors. The Pole has not been reached, and may not be, and 
the short, navigable route is demonstrably impracticable. But the 
incidental results of exploration have far more than compensated for 
every expenditure of thought and money, for all of exposure and dis- 
appointment. For lessons in patience, self-sacrifice, and heroic en- 
durance, few clearer examples can be draw^n from the world's history 
than those to be found in the baffled attempts to reach the Pole. And 
yet the world has learned from these, that Providence, which shapes 
the destinies of men and nations, ordains that while men may fail to 



* The remarkable phenomenqn of the great difference between the two zones is ac- 
counted for by the meteorologist, Mr. Croll, on the ground that, in long lapses of time, 
their climates alternate, through the change in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, in 
combination with the precession of the equinoxes. In both regions extensive fossil re- 
mains prove that a tropical or semi-tropical climate formerly existed. Our age is that of 
excess of cold in the Antarctic zone. 



EARLY SEARCH FOR A PASSAGE TO CATHAY. 21 

attain their first and perhaps less valuable aims, a larger reward often 
awaits their unrelinquished eiforts. 

The problem of the Pole and the northern passage had its birth at 
the great era of the discovery of America and of the new way to the 
Indies by the Cape of Good Hope ; discoveries which snatched mari- 
time commerce from its old seat in the Mediterranean and gave to the 
Spaniards and the Portuguese its almost exclusive control. These 
nations claimed not only the newly-discovered countries, but the right 
to the exclusive navigation of the ocean between them ; and as the 
attempt by any other nation to enter those seas involved a war with 
either, or both, Spanish and Portuguese, the northern maritime nations 
began seriously to think of some shorter passages to the Indies which 
would give them commercial superiority. For the East, as the region 
of barbaric pearl and gold, ever loomed up before the mind as the 
land of unimagined riches, and a readier passage to it, as a feat of 
daring but of sure renown. 

England led the way. " Having then no anticipation of becoming 
the sovereign of Hindostan, she hoped for a peaceful intercourse by 
a nearer avenue to southern Asia." Of this the old navigator, 
Sebastian Cabot, said, ''When the news was brought that Don 
Christoval Colon had discovered the coasts of India, by his fame 
and report, there increaseth in my heart a great flame of desire to 
attempt some notable thing; and understanding by reason of the 
sphere (globe) that if I should sail by way of the northwest I 
should by a shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the 
king to be advertised of my device." At the later date of 1569, Martin 
Frobisher, "being persuaded of a new and nearer passage to Cataya 
(Cathay) than by Capo d'buona Speranza, which the Portugalles yeerly 
use, began first with him self e to devise, and then with his friendes to 
conferre, and layde a playne platte unto them, that that voyAge was 
not only possible by the northwest, but also, as he coulde prove, easie 
to be performed." It was "the only thing left undone in the world 
whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate." 

The voyages of the Cabots established the well-known right of 
England to the possession of the North American coast, securing for 



22 AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the coming generations their great home of freedom, while French, 
exploration under Verrazzani and Cartier secured a like claim for 
France on the regions north of the St. Lawrence, — a claim afterward 
liappily absorbed under the domain of English law. A quarter of a 
century after Cabot's day, three attempts for the passage of the north- 
west having been tried in vain, a northeast course to Asia was sought 
by the fleet of Willoughby and Chancellor, which was to reach Cathay 
by doubling the northern promontory of Lapland. The admiral's fate 
was tragical. In his hoped-for shelter in a Lapland harbor he was 
found dead in his cabin, and his ship's company " dead in various parts 
of the vessel, alone or in groups." But his second officer, Chancellor, 
first for the English, entered the harbor of Archangel. It was "the 
discovery of Russia," or as a Spanish writer says, " a discovery of New 
Indies, — the commencement of maritime commerce between England 
and Russia, then one of the oldest and least mixed nations in Europe, 
but which was awakening from a long lethargy to emerge into political 
distinction." 

The voyages of Davis (1585-86), on the third of which, when in 
lat. 75°, he was " in a great sea free from ice, neither was there any 
ice toward the north, but a sea free, large, and very salt and blue, and 
of unsearchable depth," added nothing to the discovery of the passage 
beyond the renewed conviction of that day that the way toward the 
north was without impediment. The same remark may be applied to 
the voyages of Barentz and Hudson and Baffin ; the two last being made 
in the first quarter of the century following. Yet the experiences of 
the sturdy navigators on the northern Asiatic coast, and the opening" 
up on the north of America of the great inland sea and of the estuaries. 
Smith's, Lancaster, and Whale Sounds, were further inducements for 
prosecuting the search. 

Outside of the direct object named, large beneficial results were 
secured. The whale fisheries became the great object for whicli several 
nations competed; and the charts of Baffin and the voyages of Hudson 
led the way to this for the Dutch, and afterward for the English mer- 
chant. But from this date little of Arctic exploration for the North- 
west passage was entered upon for a century. 



FIRST REPORTED AMERICAN VOYAGES. 23 

The enterprise first attracted royal attention in the third quarter of the 
eighteenth century; George III., at the instance of the Royal Society 
of the Admiralty, sending out on expedition under Captain Phipps and 
toward the regions north of Spitzbergen. In his " Journal of a Voy- 
age to the North Pole," the captain entered the sea "during a sum- 
mer affording the fullest examination; but the wall of ice between 
latitudes 80"" and 81° showed for more than twenty degrees not tlie 
smallest appearance of any opening." In this expedition. Nelson, then 
but fifteen years of age, exhibited a bravery and cool courage prophetic 
of his subsequent career. 

Three years later, in July, 1776, Captain Cook sailed for the South 
Sea to make discoveries in the Pacific, and to return to England, as he 
hoped, by Behring's Strait. For, although the route to India by the 
Cape and the monopoly of commerce once enjoyed by Spain and 
Portugal had long before fallen into English hands, the northern pas- 
sage was still sought, as promising a shorter and less expensive route ; 
and an act was passed by parliament offering ^20,000 to any vessel 
which should make the passage from continent to continent in either 
direction. Cook's ships were wholly unfitted to contend with northern 
ice. He discovered the Sandwich Islands and explored Behring's Strait, 
but was speedily driven back by the ice after reaching Icy Cape. From 
this date Arctic exploration, with the exception of the discoveries of 
Mackenzie and Hearne by land, the laudable efforts of the American 
colonists, and the attempts of the Russians to double their northern 
coasts, was again nearly suspended. 

It is to the credit of the provinces of Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
and possibly of Rhode Island and of Massachussetts at a still earlier 
date, that the enterprise was not forgotten. The first note of these 
efforts here given does not belong to the region of authentic history, 
but is referred to as exhibiting indications of at least a m6re than 
probable knowledge of and sympathy with the object. The expedi- 
tions of the middle of the eighteenth century show that the colonies, 
even in their disjointed and feeble state, and in advance of the royal 
countenance of the undertaking, contributed their full share to it. It 
will be remembered that the London Company, as early as 1607, 



24 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

instructed the Virginia colonists to seek a communication with the 
South Sea, and the famous Captain John Smith was taken prisoner in 
his ascent of the Chickahominy for that object. It was clearly the 
purpose of the colonists to find a water route to Asia if possible. 

In the letter which follows these notices, the odd reference to "the 
parson " may perhaps be accounted for by remembering the old antag- 
onisms between the Quaker and the officers of the Church of England. 



EARLY AISIERICAN VOYAGES. 

I. A Voyage Reported to have been made from Boston in 
1639. — Ellis, in his "Voyage of the Dobbs and California" says: — 

" A Mr. Groiseleiz, an inhabitant of Canada, a bold and enterprising 
man, and one who had travelled much in those parts, reached the coasts 
of Hudson's Bay from the French settlements. On his return he pre- 
vailed on his countrymen to fit out a bark for perfecting the discovery 
by sea ; which being done, and he, landing on the coast, was amazed to 
find that some of his company had discovered an English settlement 
near Port Nelson. On his arrival there he found a party who told him 
they were part of a ship's crew from Boston ; that they were set on 
shore to look for a place where the ship might winter." 

To this statement, wliich is a condensation of Ellis' narrative, he 
adds in substance, — 

"It is impossible to say whether this was the ship in De Fonte's 
account ; but if it was, or if we should be wrong in this conjecture, it 
will still remain an incontestible proof that some attempts were made 
from Boston, when they were laid aside and forgot at London and 
Bristol." 

De Fonte was the Spanish admiral spoken of by Thomas Jefferj's 
in his " Great Probability of the Northwest Passage, 1768 " as having 
been sent out to intercept the reported voyage of the ship from Boston, 
as a violation of Spanish right at the time when Spain enjoyed the 
exclusive route to the Indies. Snow, in his " History of Boston," treats 
the story of the admiral as a myth. The voyage was probably for 
trading purposes. 



BENJAIVUN franklin's EXPEDITION. 25 

II. A trace of a better authenticated expedition is found in the 
"Gentlemen's Magazine," London, Nov. 1772, which says: — 

" By a letter from James Wilder, captain of the Diligence, fitted out 
in Virginia by subscription, with a view to the discovery of the long- 
sought Northwest passage, it appears by the course of the tides there 
is a passage, but that it is seldom or never open, and he believes 
impassable. He sailed as high as 69° 11', and discovered a large bay." 
To this voyage the " American Quarterly Review " of 1828, as well as 
Scoresby in his "Account of the Arctic Regions," and Macpherson in 
his "Annals of Commerce," Vol. III., refers at some length. 

III. An Earlier and also Undisputed Account. — The nar- 
rative of most interest is that of the effort made under the auspices 
of Dr. Franklin, whose letter below notes it : — 

Philadelphia, Feb. 28, 1753. 

..." I believe I have not before told you that I have provided a 

subscription here of £1500 to fit out a vessel in search of a Northwest 

passage. She sails in a few days, and is called the Argo, commanded 

by Mr. Swaine, who was in the last expedition in the California, and 

author of a Journal of that voyage in two volumes. We think the 

attempt laudable, whatever may be the success. If she fails, ' magnis 

tamen excidit ausis.' With great esteem, 

Benj. Franklin." 

Mr. Cadwalader Coldex, N.T. 

Of this voyage the " Pennsylvania Gazette," " printed for Benjamin 
Franklin, postmaster, and D. Hall," November 15, 1753, says ; — 

" Sunday last arrived here the schooner Argo, Capt. Charles Swaine, 
who sailed from this port last spring, on the discovery of a Northwest 
passage. She fell in with ice off Cape Farewell ; left the eastern ice 
and fell in with the western ice, in lat. 58°, and cruised to the' north- 
ward to lat. 63°, to clear it, but could not ; it then extending to the 
eastward. On her return to the southward, she met with two Danish 
ships bound to Ball river and Disco, up Davis Straits, who had been in 
the ice fourteen days off Farewell, and had then stood to westward and 
assured the commander that the ice was fast to the shore all above 



20 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Hudson's Straits to the distance of forty degrees out : and that there had 
not been such a severe winter as the last these twenty-four years that 
they had used that trade ; they had been nine weeks from Copenhagen. 
The Argo, finding she could not get round the ice, pressed through it 
and got into the strait's mouth the 26th of June, and made the Island 
Resolution, but was forced out by vast quantities of* driving ice, and 
got into a clear sea the first of July. On the 14th, cruising the ice 
for an opening to get in again, she met 4 sail of Hudson's Bay ships, 
endeavoring to get in, and continued with them till the 19th, when 
they parted in thick weather, in lat. 62° and a half, which weather 
continued until the 7th of August. The Hudson Bay men supposed 
themselves 40 leagues from the western land. 

" The Argo ran down the ice from 63° to 57° 30', and after repeated 
attempts to enter the straits in vain, as the season for discovery on 
the western side of the Bay w^as over, she went on the Labrador coast,, 
and discovered it perfectly from 56° to 55°, finding no less than six inlets, 
to the heads of all of which they went, and of which we hear they 
have made a very good chart, and have a better account of the 
country, its soil, produce, etc., than has hitherto been published. 

"The captain says 't is much like Norway, and that there is no 
communication with Hudson's Bay through Labrador where one has 
heretofore imagined, a high ridge of mountains running north and 
south, about fifty leagues within the coast. In one of the harbors they 
found a deserted wooden house, with a brick chimney, which had been 
l)uilt by some English, as appeared by sundry things they left behind: 
and afterwards in another harbor they met with Captain Goff in a 
Snow (a three-masted vessel, the third mast abaft the mainmast,, 
carrying a trysail) from London, who informed them that the same 
Snow had been there last year, and landed some of the Moravian 
Brethren, w^ho had built that house ; but the natives, having decoyed 
the then captain of the SnoAV and five or six of his hands in their 
boat round a point of land at a distance from the Snow, under 
pretence of trade, and carried them all off (they having gone impru- 
dently without arms), the Snow after waiting sixteen days without 
hearing of them, went home and was obliged to take away the Mora^ 



PENNSYLVANIA AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 27 

vians to help to work the vessel. Part of the business this year 
was to inquire after those men. Captain Swaine discovered a fine 
lishing bank, which lies but six leagues off the coast, and extends 
from lat. 57° to 54°, supposed to be the same hinted at in Captain 
Davis's second voyage. No bad accident happened to the vessel, 
and the men kept in perfect health during the whole voyage and 
returned all well." 

Not satisfied with the results of this attempt. Captain Swaine again 
sailed in the "Argo" the following spring, and the "Pennsylvania 
Journal and Weekly Advertiser" of Thursday, Oct. 24, 1754, pub- 
lished in Philadelphia, says : — 

"On Sunday last arrived here the schooner Argo, Capt. Swaine, 
who was fitted out in the spring on the discovery of a NorthAvest 
passage, Init having three of his men killed on the Labrador coast,. 
returned without success." 

The " Gazette " also says : — 

" On Sunday last arrived the schooner Argo from a second attempt 
of a discovery of the Northwest passage, but without success." 

In regard to this voyage, the Penn papers of the library of the His« 
torical Society of Pennsylvania furnish the following 

" Letter from Will. Allen, merchant, and, at a later date, Chief Justice 
of the Province of Pennsylvania, to the Proprietary/, Thomas Penn.'^' 

Philadelphia, November 18, 1752. 

Sir, — As I am assured that everything that regards the interest, 
and reputation of the Province of Pennsylvania will ever be regarded 
by you, I therefore beg leave to solicit your favor in behalf of myself 
and many other merchants of this place. Notwithstanding the re- 
peated attempts of gentlemen in England to discover the Northwest 
passage without success, yet there has appeared among us a spirit 
to undertake that noble design, which, if effected, will redound to 
the honor of your province, and to the advantage of us, the under- 
takers. 

By the enclosed papers, over which you will be pleased to cast your 
eye, you will perceive that last year we had intended to put our design 



2S AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

in execution, but by tlie extremity of the winter and other accidents it 
was postponed to the next year, at which time, as we have bought a 
vessel and all other material, and engaged a navigator and mariners 
here, we shall proceed in the affair and despatch the vessel from here 
the latter end of March, and are in great hopes, by avoiding mistakes 
of former attempts, and pursuing, as we think, more proper measures, 
to be able to effect the discovery of the passage, or, at least, put it out 
of doubt whether there is one or no. We have been the more encour- 
aged in this attempt by the consideration that, in case our search for 
the passage should be fruitless, we might strike out a lucrative trade 
with the coast of Labrador ; but we, to our great surprise, are informed 
we are like to be deprived of the proposed trade by means of a scoun- 
drel of a parson, one James Sterling, who last summer took his passage 
to London, and there represented the advantage of the trade to the 
Labrador coast in such a light to Messrs. Hanbury, Buchanan, and 
others, that it is said they have applied to the Crown for an exclusive 
patent. This same Sterling, who is a Church of England minister at 
Newtown, Md., was concerned with us in the original undertaking, and 
subscribed to bear part of the expense ; but after he had, by frequent 
conversations, extracted from the person we chiefly depend upon for 
executing the design all or chief part of the intelligence that he could 
give, he has been base enough to endeavor to circumvent us. As a 
proof of that I assert, I here enclose his original letter, wrote with his 
own hand, to Mr. Benjamin Franklin. We have also here our paper 
of subscription for the carrying on of the undertaking, signed by the 
said Sterling; notwithstanding which, as I said before, he made a 
voyage to London, and for his discovery and the proposals he laid 
before the above gentlemen, he has, though a parson, been rewarded 
with the collectorship of the customs at the head of the bay. We con- 
ceive ourselves very ill used by this false brother ; have therefore pre- 
sented a petition to his majesty, which comes herewith, praying that 
no patent for an exclusive trade be granted, which is humbly sub- 
mitted to your consideration ; and I am desired to request that you will 
please to get it presented if you judge it will answer any good end. 
The expense attending the solicitation, etc., I will take care of, with 



SIR JOHN FRANELLIK. 29 

thanks to discharge. Your kind interposition in our behalf will confer 
a favor on many of the most considerable merchants of this place, and 
particularly on Your most obedient, humble servant, 

Will. Allen." 

Mr. Bancroft, in his "History of the United States," Vol. IV., 
p. 141, indorses the fact of the voyages last named. In Jeffery's vol- 
ume of 1768 will be found the statement that a Captain Taylor, in a 
sloop of about thirty-five tons, was met with July 9, 1753, in about 
latitude 56^ north, which sloop had been fitted out in Rhode Island to 
go in pursuit of a northwest passage and, if not successful, to come 
down on the coast of Labrador. 



RENEWAL OF THE SEARCH. 

The explorations suspended by the ill-success of past efforts and 
yet more by the existence of the long period of the wars in Europe, were 
renewed four years after the peace of 1815. Its history from that 
date is so closely connected with the name of Sir John Franklin, the 
search for whom occasioned its revival in the United States, that it 
will best evolve itself in the story of his career. The efforts of Kane 
and Hall for the rescue of the lost explorer, and the noble seconding 
of these by Mr. Henry Grinnell, of New York, under the auspices of 
the U. S. Government, hold a place among the deeds of humanity 
which the world honors. 

Sir John Franklin, the youngest of four sons of Willingham 
Franklin, merchant, was born April 16, 1786, at Spilsby, Lincolnshire. 
His father, designing him for the church, gave him a classical and 
mathematical education, but the first sight of the ocean so Vividly 
excited the boy's imagination that he determined to be a sailor. His 
father, thinking that this childish caprice would be cured by a taste of 
sea life, shipped him on a merchant vessel to Lisbon, but on his return 
found him more than ever a lover of the sea. He obtained for him a 
midshipman's warrant on the "Polyphemus," of seventy-four guns. 



^0 AMERICAN EXPLOKATiONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

commanded b}^ Captain Lawford, under whom the young officer took 
part in the battle of Copenhagen, 1801. 

In 1803, he was attached to the " Investigator," on the survey of the 
coasts of New Holland, setting out on his return from which cruise 
he was shipwrecked, with his brother officers and crew, on a desolate 
sand-bank, scarcely four feet above the water, and rescued at the end 
only of fifty days' suffering. At the battle of Trafalgar, where he 
acted as signal officer on the " Bellerophon," he was distinguished for 
his coolness and intrepidity in the hours of greatest danger, when sur- 
rounded by the dead and wounded. The remainder of his active ser- 
vice was on the coast of Portugal, on the Brazil station, and in the 
Gulf of Mexico. His ship in 1808 carried the royal family of Por- 
tugal to Brazil, when forced into hasty exile from Lisbon. In the war 
between the United States and Great Britain, at the battle of New 
Orleans, he was slightly wounded while in command of the " Belford's " 
l)oats, and for his brilliant conduct in this action was made first lieu- 
tenant of the " Forth." This ship, at the restoration of the Bourbons, 
carried the long-exiled Duchess d'Angouleme, daughter of Louis XVI., 
back to France. 

From this date his talents were chiefly enlisted in the field of Arctic 
exploration, which connects itself with this history. English efforts 
to reach the Pole and find the Northwest passage were about to be 
revived. The reports made by Scoresby of the existence during the 
two preceding years of open water to the extent of two thousand 
square leagues in the Greenland Sea, between the seventy-fourth and 
eightieth degrees, north latitude, with like reports of the breaking up 
of the ice barrier on the north, excited the attention of navigators. 
The Admiralty, influenced by the suggestions of Sir John Barrow, and 
of Sir Joseph Banks, who, as a scientific man, stood high with the gov- 
ernment, prepared two new expeditions, and Sir Joseph Banks desig- 
nated Franklin as second in command of one of these. Both expedi- 
tions were unsuccessful, finding, after reaching the eightieth degree of 
north latitude, in place of the open Polar sea, through which it was 
hoped they could make a short journey to Behring's Strait, an impen- 
etrable line of ice. After their five months' cruise the '' Dorothea" 



SIR J OHM franklin's LAST EXPEDITION. 81 

and the "Trent" returned to Oeptford, October 22, 1818. Admiral 
Beechey, who had served with Franklin in the '•' Trent," has given a 
vivid account of the strong desire of Franklin to continue the cruise, 
even after the receipt of very serious injury to his ship. 

In the year following, he left Gravesend on a merchant ship of the 
Hudson Bay Company, for a land journey to the northern shores of 
America, which he was to explore in co-operation with Parry, who was 
despatched, with two vessels, to Lancaster Sound. The whole north- 
ern coast at that date had been explored at but two isolated points, 
the mouths of the Coppermine and the McKenzie. Accompanied by 
Dr. Richardson, Midshipmen Hood and Back, and a few Orkney men, 
he reached York Factory, from the city of New York, August 13, and 
thence, by a journey of seven hundred miles, arrived at Fort Cumber- 
land in October, and wintered the first year on the Saskatchewan, 
and the second on " the barren grounds " ; in the following summer he 
descended the Coppermine River, and surveyed five hundred and fifty 
miles of the sea-coast eastwardc From York Factory to the return to 
it by land and water, the journey was one of five thousand five hun- 
dred and fifty miles. 

In his second land expedition, 1825-27, he descended the McKenzie, 
and traced the coast line through thirty-seven degrees of longitude to 
near the one hundred and fiftieth meridian. The English government, 
appreciating the services of one who, through great danger and suf- 
fering, had carried these expeditions over nine thousand miles, and 
added to the charts twelve hundred miles of the northern coast-line, 
knighted him in 1829. He also received the honorary degree of D.C.L. 
from the University of Oxford, was awarded the great gold medal 
from the French Geographical Society, and was elected a member of 
the Academy of Sciences, Paris. 

As governor of Tasmania, 1836-43, he accomplished much for the 
advancement of the colony, — among other benefits founding the Royal 
Society of Tasmania at Hobart-Town, the meetings of which were held 
in the Government-house, and the papers printed at his expense. By a 
singular coincidence, among the Antarctic expeditions visiting the col- 
ony he had occasion to welcome the ''Erebus" and '^Terror," the ships 



^•^-6^7^ 



32 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

with Avhich his own name was afterwards to be so pathetically con. 
nected. 

FRANKLIN'S LAST EXPEDITION. 

On his return to England, in 1844, he found the Admiralty exercised 
on the subject of a new Arctic expedition, proposed by the Koj^al 
Society at the instance of Sir John Barrow. He claimed the com- 
mand, and was appointed. On this occasion the first lord of the Admi- 
ralty had said to Sir Edward Parry, " I see that Franklin is sixty years 
of age; ought we to permit him to go out?" to which Parry replied, 
" He is the ablest man I know, and if you do not send him he will 
certainly die of despair." Franklin himself said, when asked, "Can 
you not repose on the laurels won in such good service for your coun- 
try?" "My lord, I am but fifty-nine." "He appeared," says La Ro- 
quette, " as jealous of a few months of his age, when it was a question 
of exposure to great danger, or of executing a work of difficulty or 
suffering, as a woman would be of being thought older than the parish 
register showed." The prestige of Arctic service, and of his brilliant 
experiences, brought around him a crowd of volunteers for the new 
expedition in search of the Northwest passage, and, supported by a 
body of officers conspicuous for talent and energy, and a crew largely 
chosen from the whaling service, he left England, in command of the 
" Erebus " and " Terror," May 19, 1845. In his judgment, the solution 
of the problem of the passage was now to connect Parry's furthest 
westing of 113° 48' 22'', made in 1819, either with Behring's Strait or 
southward with Simpson's Strait. Franklin's instructions, were framed 
(in conjunction with Sir John Barrow, and upon his own suggestions) 
by the eminent explorers with whom his former work had closely con- 
nected him. The experience of Parry made it evident that a fresh 
attempt to force ships through the heavy ice seen by him to the 
southwest of Melville Island would be futile, as has since been fully 
proved. On the other hand, Franklin's surveys of the north coast of 
America had long before satisfied him that a navigable passage existed 
along it, from the Fish River to Behring's Strait. Of the western 
entrance to Simpson's Strait he had been accustomed to say, '• If I 





y/u>/nyyn //■ 'jy-n^/A/:' >''■(./■/,«, ,U'^^.^, 



1^ :j_2^/?-.«V*^^ 



l!iii(Nni. Kns^iiiviiis i; I'liuli 



LETTERS FROM SIR JOHN FRANIiXIN. 33 

could only get down there my work is done ; it is all plain sailing to 
the westward." 

The expedition of 1845 consisted of the " Erebus," three hundred 
and seventy tons, screw. Captain Sir J. Franklin commanding, with 
Commander J. Fitz-James and Lieutenant G. Gore ; and the " Terror," 
three hundred and forty tons, screw. Captain F. R. M. Crozier and 
Lieutenant E. Little. 

It comprised in all one hundred and thirty-four officers and men, 
with a transport ship to carry additional stores to Disco, Greenland. 
The "Erebus" and "Terror" were victualled for three years, and fur- 
nished with every appliance of that day ; much of the provisions, how- 
ever, proving at a later date to have been of a quality most unfortu- 
nate for the success of the enterprise. Within the second week of 
July the transport took on board for her return the last letters ever 
received from officers or crew. Franklin's last was as follows : — 

"Whale Fish Island, Bay of Disco, 11th July, 1845. 
" My Dear Sister, — ... The appearance, dress, and manners of 
the Esquimaux bespeak that care is taken of them by the government. 
Several of them can read the Bible with ease, and I am told that when 
the families are all collected the children are obliged to attend school 
daily. I looked into one of the huts arranged with seats for this pur- 
pose. When the minister comes over from Disco he superintends the 
school ; at other times the children are taught by a half-caste Esqui- 
maux. How delightful it is to know that the gospel is spreading far 
and wide, and will do so till its blessed truths are disseminated 
through the globe. Every ship in these days ought to go forth to 
strange lands bearing among its officers a missionary spirit ; and may 
God grant such a spirit on board this ship. It is my desire to cultivate 
this feeling, and I am encouraged to hope we have among us some who 
will aid me in this duty. We have divine service twice on each Sun- 
day, and I never witnessed a more attentive congregation than we 
have. May the seed sown fall upon good ground, and bring forth 
fruit abundantly to God's honor and glory. 

" Ever your affectionate brother, 

John Franklin." 



34 A^IERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Two days before, he had written, " I hope that my dear wife and 
daughter will not be anxious if we should not return by the time they 
have fixed upon. . . . Without success in our object, even after the 
second winter^ we should wish to try some other channel, should the 
state of our provisions and the health of our crews justify it." 

The fullest anticipations of success were indulged in by officers and 
men. Some, in their letters home, went so far as to speak of answers 
being directed to them to ports on the Asiatic coast. Lieutenant Fair- 
holme, of the " Erebus," wrote, " On board we are as comfortable as it is 
possible to be. I need hardly tell you how much we are all delighted 
with our captain. He has, I am sure, won not only the respect, but 
the love of every person on board by his amiable manner and kindness 
to all ; and his influence is always employed for some good purpose, both 
among officers and men. He is in much better health than when we 
left England, and looks ten years younger." The gallant Fitz-James 
had also written to Mr. John Barrow, Jr., " I am convinced that he is 
the most capable of all men of commanding an expedition which 
demands profound judgment and large experience." 

From the date of these letters no direct news from thfe ships was 
ever received, except the reports of Captains Dannet and Martin, of 
the whalers, " Prince of Wales " and " Enterprise," who spoke them, 
July 26, of the same year, in Melville Bay, north latitude 77° 48', east 
longitude Q^° 13'. On that day " everything was going on well ; 
officers and men busily shooting the birds — the auks — which sur- 
rounded them, to add to their provision stores, augxiaQuting these by a 
full supply for nearly two years." 



RELIEF EXPEDITIONS. 

Although no real public anxiety as to the fato of the vessels was 
felt in England for the two years following, preparations began to be 
made for the possible necessity of succoring the explorers ; and, time 
still passing without tidings, expedition after expedition was des- 
patched in quest, regardless of cost or hazard, Sir John's heroic wife 
taking in these such a part as to ennoble her name for all time. The 



RELIEF EXPEDITIONS. 



35 



American explorations of Kane and Hall, which are closely connected 
with the object of these expeditions, are included in the following 
tables. The lines of search, and the chief localities examined may be 
traced on circum-polar map No. 1 (pocket). The tables have been 
arranged to show that the search for Franklin was carried on by expe- 
ditions which, within about the same periods, visited the northern 
coasts, some from Behring's Strait and some from Baffin's Bay, supple- 
mented by land explorations, chiefly along the middle section of the 
continent. The private expeditions closed the search (Table IV.) by 
McClintock's voyage in the " Fox." 

Table I. 

English and American Expeditions for the Relief of Sir John Franklin, 
1848-1859. From the West through Behring's Strait. 



Years. 



Vessels, 



Commanders. 



Line of Search and Coasts Examined. 



1848-52 



1848-49 



1850-55 

1851-52 

1853 

1853 

1853 

1854 



Plover 



Herald 



Enterprise . 
Investigator, 
Supply Ships. 
Daedalus 
Amphitrite, 
Kattlesnake, 
Diligence . 
Trincomalee, 



Commander Moore 
Captain Maguire . 



Captain Kellett . 



Captain Collinson 
Commander McClm-e, 

Captain Wellesley 
Captain Frederick 
Commander Trollope 
Lieutenant Elliott 
Captain Houston . 



f Through Behring's Strait, beyond Point 
Barrow, to lat. 73^ 51', N. long. 163^ 48' 
W., with a boat expedition from the 
Plover up the Mackenzie River, and east 
to Cape Bathurst; Mr. R. Sheddon in 
his yacht "Nancy Dawson" rendering 

. assistance. 

Discovered Herald Island, and visited 
and named a part of the land reported 
by Wrangell. 

Coast of North America, from Behring's 
Strait to Dease Strait and coast of Banks' 
Land. Investigator abandoned June 3, 
1853, in the Bay of Mercy, on the north 
coast of Banks' Land. Commander 
McClure crossed on the ice to Dealy 
Island to the Resolute and Intrepid, and 
returned across the Atlantic to England. 
Parliament gave £10,000 to him and his 
^ officers. 



36 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



Table II . 
From the East through Baffin's Bay. 



Years. 



Vessels. 



Commanders. 



1848-49 

1849-50 
1850-51 

1850-51 
3850-51 



1852-54 



1853 



1853-55 



1854 



1855 



Enterprise . 
Investigator, 



North Star . 
Supply Ship. 

L'y Franklin. 

Sopliia . . 

Eesolute . . 

Assistance . 

Pioneer . . 

Intrepid . . 

Advance . . 

Rescue . . 



Assistance 
Resolute . 
Pioneer . 
Intrepid . 
North Star 



Phenix . . 
Breadalbane, 



Advance 

Phenix 
Talbot 

Release 

Arctic 



Sir J, C. Ross 
Captain Bird . 



Master Saunders . . 

Captain Penny . . . 
Captain Stewart . , 

Captain Austin . . 

Captain Ommaney . 

Lieutenant Osborn . 

Lieutenant Cator . . 

Lieutenant DeHaven, 

U.S.N. 
Master Griffin,U.S.N. 



Sir E. Belcher . . 
Captain Kellet . . 
Lieutenant Osborn 
Lieut. McClintock 
Captain Pullen 



Command' r Inglefield 
Lieutenant Fawckner 



Dr. Kane, U.S.N. 



Command' r Inglefield 
Commander Jenkins, 

Lieutenant Hartstene 

U.S.N. 
Lieutenant Simms . 

U.S.N. 



Line of Search and Coasts Examined. 



North and west coast of North Somer- 
set; north shores of Barrow Strait and 
the shores of Prince Regent's Inlet. 

Landed provisions on one of the Wol- 
laston Islands. 

Coasts of Cornwallis Island and shores 
of Wellington Channel. 

f South coasts of Parry Islands, and the 
! passages between them, north, west, and 
I east coast of Prince of Wales Island to 
[long. 103^ W., lat. 72° N. 

First Grinnell expedition: shores of 
Wellington Channel; discovered Grinnell 
Land. 

Shores of Wellington Channel and the 
coasts of Melville and Prince Patrick 
Islands; the Assistance, Resolute, and 
Pioneer, and Intrepid abandoned Aug. 
26, 1854; the Resolute picked up at sea, 
lat. 64^ 40', long. 61° 30', Sept. 11, 1855, 
by Capt. James Buddington, of New 
London, Conn., brought to the United 
States, and presented to England by joint 
resolution of United States Congress of 
Aug. 28, 1856; delivered to Queen Vic- 
toria by Commander Hartstene, U.S.N. , 
Dec. 16, of the same year. 

Shores of Wellington Channel; landed 
stores at Cape Riley; returned with part 
of McClure's command; Lieut. Bellot, of 
France, perished in the ice Aug. 17, 1853; 
the ship lost at Cape Riley Aug. 21, 1853. 

Second Grinnell expedition, Smith's 
Sound, lat. 82° 27' N. 

( Returned to England from Beechey 
) Island, with part of Belcher's and Mc- 
( Clure's command. 

S Ships sent out for relief of Dr. Kane ; 
found him on his return at Lievely or 
Godhaven, Greenland. 



RELIEF EXPEDITIONS. 



37 



Table III. 
Land Expeditions. 



1848-49 — 



1849 — Dr. 


1849-51 — 


1851— Dr. 


1853-54 — 


185a— J. . 



Sir John Kichardson and Dr. Rae searched the coasts of North America 
between the Mackenzie and the Coppermine Rivers. (Dr. Rae, under the 
Hudson Bay Company, in 1846-47 made a voyage of discovery from Fort 
Churchill to the Gulf of Boothia, surveying the gulf to Fury and Hecla 
Strait on the east, and Lord Mayor's Bay of Sir James Ross on the west, 
determining there an isthmus.) 

. Rae reached Cape Krusenstern. 

Lieut. W. J. S. Pullen from the Plover. (See Table No. I. for boat expedition.) 

. Rae: coasts of Wollaston Island and east coast of Victoria Land, to lat. 
70'^ N., long. 101^ W. 

Dr. Rae: coasts of Boothia Isthmus; obtained relics of Franklin's expedition. 
(Rewarded by vote of Parliament.) 

Anderson and J. G. Stewart : west coast of Adelaide Peninsula. 



Table IV. 

Pkivate Expeditions Organized under Subscriptions by Lady Franklin, 

Captain Ross, Lieutenants McClintock, Young, and others. 



Years. 



Vessels. 



Commanders. 



Line of Search and Coasts Examined. 



1850-51 



1850 



1851-52 



1852 



1857-59 



Felix 
Mary 



Prince Albert 



Prince Albert 



Isabel 



Fox 



Sir John Ross . . 
Commander Phillips 



Commander Forsyth, 



Captain Kennedy 
Lieutenant Bellot 



Command' r Inglefield, 



Captain McClintock 



i f A portion of Cornwallis Island. (Dr. 
; I E. A. Goodsir, brother of the surgeon of 
I ■{ the Erebus, in the whaler Advice in 1849 
I I also searched Baffin's Bay and Lancaster 
j [ Sound. 

I f Found Barrow Strait and Prince Re- 
j gent's Inlet blocked with ice; coasts of 
I Prince of Wales Island and North 
[ Somerset. 

C Shores of Prince Regent's Inlet and 
< Bellot' s Strait. Lieutenant Bellot of 
( France was second in command. 

f Westenholme, Whale, Smith's, Jones', 
I and Lancaster Sounds, and Baffin's Bay. 
-{ (Captain Kennedy, in 1853, sailed in the 
1 Isabel for Behring's Strait; voyage aban- 
[ doned at Valparaiso. ) 

f Completed survey of North Somerset, 
Prince of Wales Island, Boothia, Felix 
J Penmsula, and King William Land, 
I finding many relics of Franklin's expe- 
1 dition, and obtaining at Point Victory 
[ the only record as yet discovered. 



This last expedition, under McClintock, brought from the cairn at Point Victory, on 
King William Land, a tin cylinder containing the record. 



38 AlMERICAl^ EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The finding of this paper and the expedition itself, were the result 
of Lady Franklin's last effort to discover the fate of her husband. 
To this object she dedicated all her available means, and, aided by 
sympathizing friends, had purchased and fitted out the "Fox," in 
which McClintock sailed. The paper was found by Lieut. Hobson in 
a cairn twelve miles from Cape Herschel, and, with a large number 
of relics obtained at this and other points, it was deposited in the 
Museum of the United Service Institution, Whitehall Yard. The 
discovery of this paper first definitely made known the fate of the 
party, — an issue generally apprehended in England from the time of 
Rae's discoveries in 185 J:, for the relics which in that year he had 
brought froi^ the Eskimos were articles of personal property of the 



BAROMETER OF FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION, 
Found by C. F. Hall, on King William Land, in 1869. 

officers, including Sir John Franklin's own star of the Order of Merit,, 
with the motto, "-Nee aspera terrent;' G. R. III., MDCCCXV. 

Notices of the earlier relics discovered, traces of the missing ships^ 
and of the relics afterward recovered from the Eskimos by Hall and 
Schwatka, will appear in their proper places in the jSTarrative. It will 
be sufficient here to state the results of the expedition and the accred- 
ited awards. 

At the meeting of the^ Royal Geographical Society of London,. 
May 28, 1860, the president. Earl de Grey and Ripon, presenting the- 
founder's gold medal to Lady Franklin, expressed the decision of the 
Society in the words : " It is now demonstrated that the ' Erebus ' and 
' Terror ' ascended Wellington Channel to the seventy-seventh degree 
of north latitude ; that the two ships were navigated round Cornwallis 
Land, which was thus proved to be an island ; and that finally, steering 
from Beechy Island to the southwest, they were, on the 12th of Sep- 
tember, 1846, beset in the ice, in which they wintered, in latitude 
N. 70° 5', and longitude W. 98° 23', having reached a position never 
before or since attained by any other ship." 



FPvANKLLN DISCOVERS THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE. 



39 



" In placing the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' in 1846, in this position, it 
is clear that the Franklin expedition, whose commander, with others, 
had previously ascertained the existence of a channel along the north 
coast of America, with which the frozen sea, wherein he was beset, had 
a direct communication, had, in a geographical sense, firmly established 
the existence of a Northwest passage." 

At the same meeting the Patron's Medal was awarded- to Captain 
(now Admiral) F. L. McClintock, the President saying for the 
Society, "All the devotion of a Lady Franklin, and the efforts of 
the British nation, might well have failed in unravelling the fate of 
the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' had not such a commander been selected 
for the ' Fox.' " 



A monument costing two thousand pounds, erected in Waterloo 
Place, London, bears the inscription : — 



FKANKLm. 

To the Great Navigator 

and his brave Companions 

who sacrificed their lives 

completing the Discovery of 

The Northwest Passage, 

A.D. 1847-48. 

Erected by the unanimous vote 
of Parliament. 



This statue, voted by the nation, was unveiled in the presence of 
the first lord of the admiralty. Sir J. Packington, and of the distin- 
guished Arctic explorers and geographers, Collinson, Ommaney, Sabine, 
MurcVson, Osborn, and Rawlinson, Mr. John Barrow, Mr.^ Arrow- 
smith, and others, with Lady Franklin, who declared the likeness of 
her husband excellent and characteristic. He is represented as 
informing his officers and crew that the Northwest passage has been 
discovered. A panel represents Crozier reading the funeral service 
over Franklin in 1847. 



40 AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Ill 1875 a beautiful monument, ordered by Lady Franklin, who 
inspected it shortly before her death, was placed in Westminster 
Abbey. It is of Carara marble, having in bas-relief an ice-bound ship, 
and the inscription, — 

" O ye frost and cold! O ye ice and snow! 
Bless ye tlie Lord!" 

Followed by Tennyson's lines : — 

" Not here: the white North has thy bones, and thou, 
Heroic Sailor Soul, 
Art passing on thy happier voyage now 
Toward no Earthly Pole. ' ' 

And concluding with tlie words : — 

"Erected by his widow, who, after long waiting, and sending many in search of him, 
herself departed to find him in the realms of life." 

The facts which these and other memorials commemorate being 
unknown, as has been said, until the year 1859, America heartily joined 
in the relief expedition of 1850, to which, in connection with subse- 
quent American explorations, this narrative now turns. 




CHAPTER II. 

THE GRINNELL EXPEDITIONS. — REVIVING ARCTIC EXPLORATION. — 

PRESIDENT Taylor's message to congress transmitting cor- 
respondence WITH LADY franklin. — RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING 
THE EXPEDITION APPROVED MAY 5, 1850. — MR. GRINNELL's MEMO- 
RIAL SUPPORTED BY CLAY, SEWARD, AND PEARCE, IN THE SENATE. — 
OFFICERS OF THE FIRST EXPEDITION. — INSTRUCTIONS OF SECRETARY 
PRESTON TO DeHAVEN, WHO SAILS FROM NEW YORK MAY 22, 1850. 

— dispatches from st. johns and the whale-ship islands. — 
deha yen's report of the graves found at beechey island. — 
he arrives at griffith island. — drifts northward. — geo- 
graphical discoveries. — eastward into baffin's bay. — freed 
from the ice june 10, 1851. — again released, aug. 18. — sails 
from holsteinborg, sept. 6. — arrives at new york, sept. 30. 

THE records of the State and Navy Departments show that each 
of these voyages in search of Franklin is to be credited to the 
special and long-cherished interest of Mr. Henry Grinnell, of 
New York, who, to the very last, entertained a hope of the safety of 
the missing navigators. Lady Franklin, in two letters dated April 4 
and December 11, 1849, respectively, had addressed President Taylor 
soliciting the aid of the United States Government in the search. In 
the first letter she expressed her gratification at the respect and cour- 
tesy received on her visit to the United States three years previously, 
and especially at the interest which she had found to be felt in the 
enterprise in which Sir John was known to be engaged. Referring 
also in brief to the British expeditions sent out since the year 1847 in 
proof that her own Government "had not forgotten the duty to brave 
men sent on a perilous service," Lady Franklin adverted to the fact 
that the Admiralty reward of twent}^ thousand pounds for any efficient 
assistance had been offered too late for the British whalers, who had 
then already sailed. She therefore looked "with more hope to the 

41 



42 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

American whalers, both in the Atlantic and Pacific, as competitors for 
the prize, being well aware of their strength and bold spirit of enter- 
prise." She added, " I venture to look even beyond these : I am not 
without hope that you will deem it not unworthy of a great and kin- 
dred nation to take up the cause of humanity which I plead, in a 
national spirit, and thus generously make it your own." Cherishing^ 
the hope that the Russian Government would send out exploring par- 
ties from the Asiatic side of Behring's Strait, she said : " It would be 
a noble spectacle to the world if three great nations, possessed of the 
widest empires on the face of the globe, were thus to unite their efforts 
in the truly Christian work of saving their perishing fellow-men from 
destruction." 

To this letter the Secretary of State, Mr. Clayton, replied for the 
President, that the appeal was such as would strongly enlist the sym- 
pathy of the rulers and the people of all portions of the civilized 
world. 

"To the citizens of the United States, who share so largely in the 
emotions which agitate the public mind of your own country, the 
name of Sir John Franklin has been endeared by his heroic virtues 
and the sufferings and sacrifices which he has encountered for the 
benefit of mankind. The appeal of his wife and daughter, in their 
distress, has been borne across the waters, asking the assistance of a 
kindred people to save the brave men who embarked in his unfortunate 
expedition ; and the people of the United States, who have watched 
with the deepest interest that hazardous enterprise, will now respond 
to that appeal by the expression of their united wishes that ever^y 
proper effort may be made by this Government for the rescue of your 
husband and his companions. 

"To accomplish the objects you have in view, the attention of 
American navigators, and especially of our whalers, will be immedi- 
ately invoked. All the information in the possession of this Govern- 
ment, to enable them to aid in discovering the missing ships, relieving^ 
their crews, and restoring them to their families, shall be spread far 
and wide among our people ; and all that the Executive Government of 
the United States, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, can 



PRESIDENT Taylor's message 43^ 

effect to meet this requisition on American enterprise, skill, and 
bravery, will be promptly undertaken. 

"The hearts of the American people will be deeply touched bv 
your eloquent address to their chief magistrate, and they will join with 
you in an earnest prayer to Him whose spirit is on the waters, that 
your husband and his companions may yet be restored to their country 
and their friends." 

In addition to the reward offered by the Admiralty, Lady Franklin 
had herself offered the sum of three thousand pounds, or a proportion 
thereof, according to the services rendered, to such ship or ships as 
should afford effectual relief to any portion of the expedition. In her 
second letter of December 11, at which date Sir James Ross had 
returned without the discovery of even a trace of the expedition, she 
again appealed to the President for his recommendation of national 
assistance, with the plea that, " until the shores and seas of the frozen 
regions had been swept in all directions, or until some memorial should 
be found to attest their fate, neither England, who sent them out, nor 
even America, on whose shores they had been launched in a cause 
which had interested the world for centuries, would deem the question 
at rest." 

January 22, 1850, President Taylor, in a message to Congress, 
transmitted the correspondence which has been here named. The 
President said that he had anxiously sought the means of affording 
assistance, but was prevented from accomplishing the object in conse- 
quence of the want of vessels suitable to encounter the perils of a 
proper exploration, the lateness of the season, and the want of an 
appropriation. All he could do was to cause the advertisements of 
reward promulgated by the British Government, and the best informa- 
tion he could obtain as to the means of finding the lost ships, to be 
widely circulated among American whalers and seafaring men. The 
propriety and expediency of an appropriation was submitted to Con- 
gress. A board appointed by the Secretary of the Navy had reported 
to him that no ships were ready for such an expedition or could be 
equipped in season, and that there seemed to be no constitutional 
power to authorize an equipment. 



44 AMERICAN EXPLOHATIOXS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The message of the President, referred in the House to the Naval 
Committee, brought from the chairman of that committee, Hon. F. P. 
Stanton, a favorable report in the form of a Joint Resolution, hj which 
the President was authorized "to accept and attach to the navj two 
vessels offered by Henry Grinnell, Esq., to be sent to the Arctic Seas 
in search of Sir John Franklin and his companions," and to " detail 
from the navy such commissioned and warrant-officers and seamen as 
may be necessary for said expedition, and who may be willing to 
engage in it. The said officers and men shall be furnished with suit- 
able rations for a period not exceeding three years, and shall have the 
use of such necessary instruments as the departments can provide. 
The said vessels, officers, and men shall be in all respects under the 
laws and regulations of the Navy of the United States until their 
return, when the vessels shall be delivered to Henry Grinnell. Pro- 
vided that the United States shall not be liable to any claim for com- 
pensation in case of the loss, damage, deterioration, use, or risk of the 
vessels." 

The Resolution, reported April 25, was passed by the House on the 
following day, and by the Senate May 1 ; it was approved by the Presi- 
dent May 5, 1850. 

Lady Franklin, on her visit to the United States, had been the guest 
of Mr. Grinnell, whose interest in Arctic explorations had been first 
aroused by a letter from her to a citizen of New York, asking whether 
something could not be done in the United States towards the rescue, 
and had been increased by frequent letters subsequently received 
from her. 

In the early spring of 1856, assisted by the hearty good- will and 
personal labors of Lieutenant M. F. Maury, U.S.N., Superintendent 
of the then ''National Observatory," he presented the following 
memorial to Congress : — 

'' The interest felt in the fate of the Franklin expedition is not con- 
fined to the country under whose flag it sailed. Commerce and science, 
not less than philanthropic benevolence, are deeply interested in the 
efforts now making for the discovery of the missing navigators. While 
so deep and generous a sympathy pervades the civilized world on this 



HENRY GRINNELL's MEMORIAL. 45 

subject, your memorialist feels strongly desirous that some effort be 
made by his country to signalize its zeal in such a cause. Entertaining 
a confident belief in the safety of the expedition, and that the gallant 
men who have so nobly risked their lives in the cause of geographical 
science may yet be rescued and restored to their country and their 
famihes, the earnest desire of 3'our memorialist is to contribute some- 
thing to so beneficial a result. Moved by these considerations, he has 
prepared and is now fitting out two vessels of the proper size, and with 
the needful appointments to proceed with all dispatch to the polar 
regions. 

'' He has been permitted to call on the officers of the Navy for vol- 
unteers to take charge of this expedition. This call has been answered 
with a zeal and nobleness of spirit beyond praise, without the promise 
or hope of reward; Lieutenant DeHaven, assisted by Passed Mid- 
shipman Griffin as second in command, has been selected to take com- 
mand of the expedition. 

" It is the opinion of this officer and of others that it is of the first 
importance that the expedition be placed under naval laws during the 
term of its service. Your memorialist, therefore, prays for the needful 
legislation at an early date, in order that time may be afforded for the 
necessary action consequent upon it. 

"Your memorialist has from his own resources provided for the 
principal expenses of the expedition. It would strengthen his hope of 
ultimate success, and facilitate greatly the object in view, if the act of 
Congress should authorize the word to be passed in the navy for vol- 
unteers among the men, as well as the officers, limiting to fifteen the 
number for each vessel. Should the pay and naval rations be deemed 
insufficient by the crew, your memorialist wishes to give from his own 
purse such additional sums as may be proper and satisfactory to the 
volunteers. 

" The two vessels now purchased and fitting out are of ninety-one 
and one hundred and forty-four tons' burden respectively. Every 
proper means will be taken to insure strength and durability, and 
power to overcome all obstacles in the way of success. The paramount 
inducement to this expedition on the part of your memorialist is the 



46 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

rescue of Sir John Franklin and liis companions, but he shall think it 
due to science to instruct the officers in command to use all diligence 
and zeal in the exploration of the frozen region to which they are 
bound. 

" There are good grounds for believing this to be a propitious 
season for such an exploration, and he shall not easily relinquish the 
hope of his being in some degree instrumental in solving the long- 
disputed question of the Northwest passage from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. 

" Hoping that your honorable body will give the subject an early 
and favorable consideration, your memorialist will ever pray, etc. 

(Signed) "Henry Grinnell." 

Henry Clay, in presenting the memorial, which secured the passage 
of this resolution, said of Mr. Grinnell, " I am proud of the manner in 
which the mercantile classes of our country administer in all great 
enterprises the wealth which they have acquired in the pursuit of 
business. Among the most eminent of these merchants stands the 
gentleman whose petition I present. 

" I am very much afraid that the unfortunate person and his com- 
panions whose fate Mr. Grinnell and the world are so anxious to learn 
will be found to be no more. But if the enterprise should fail to dis- 
cover their existence, or even their fate, the attempt will be gratifying 
to the whole world ; and if nothing whatever is discovered in respect 
of them, useful discoveries may be made, which will add to the amount 
of information we possess, and amply repay any expenditure that may 
be incurred by our granting the prayer of the petitioner." 

To the objections made by Senators King and Foote, that it is 
inconsistent with the dignity of the Government to mix itself up thus 
with a private enterprise, and that it would be better for the United 
States to send out its own expedition, it was replied by Senators Mil- 
ler and Seward that, owing to the lateness of the season, this was not 
practicable, and that the vessels would become national vessels for the 
time in which they would be engaged, naval discipline being asked for 
by the memorialist as a necessity ; further, that all our enterprises are 



THE "advance" and THE "EESCUE." 47 

more or less carried into execution, not by the direct action of the 
Government, but by lending its aid and countenance to individuals, 
corporations, states, colleges, or universities. 

To the objection raised by Senator Jefferson Davis, that it is im- 
proper to appropriate money for the purpose, of the error of which 
opinion he said he '' could only be convinced by its being shown that 
this Government is not a corporation formed hy the States^ with limited 
powers and for specific purposes," no reply appears to have been made. 



Sailing of the First Expedition, May 22, 1850. 

On the 15th of May, 1850, Secretary Preston gave to Lieutenant 
DeHaven his instructions. The lieutenant, in expectation of the 
passage of the resolution by Congress, had been in New York for sev- 
eral weeks, and had been closely occupied in fitting out the two ships 
-offered by Mr. Grinnell. The expedition consisted of the brigantines 
"Advance," 144 tons, and the "Rescue," of 91 tons burden. It was 
the opinion of experienced officers that vessels of about these dimen- 
sions, drawing not above ten feet of water, would answer as well as 
larger ships the purpose of a careful search. They were officered as 
below : — 

^^ Advance.'''' 

Lieutenant Edward J. DeHaven, commanding the expedition. 

Passed Midshipman William H. Murdaugh, first officer 

Midshipman William J. Lovell, second officer. 

E. K. Kane, M.D., passed assistant-surgeon. 

^^Rescuey 
Acting Master Samuel P. Griffin, commanding. 
Passed Midshipman Robert R. Carter, acting master and first officer. 
Boatswain, Henry Brooks, second officer. 
Benjamin Vreeland, M.D., assistant-surgeon.* 

* Officers' Record. — E. J. DeHaven entered the navy as midshipman, Oct. 2, 
1829; promoted to be passed midshipman, July 3, 1835; lieutenant, Sept. 8, 1841; retired, 
Feb. 6, 1861 ; died, May 1, 1865. Samuel P. Griffin entered the service as midshipman, 



48 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIOKS IN THE JCE ZONES. 

Lieut. DeHaven had seen nearly twenty years' naval service, and 
had passed through something of a like experience with that seemingly 
now before him wdien in command of the " Flying Fish," one of the 
vessels of the United States exploring expedition of 1838, in the 
Antarctic Ocean, under Lieut, (late Admiral) Wilkes. 

In the instructions from the Navy Department for the expeditio^i. 
Secretary Preston suggested as the outline of its course that the ships, 
after passing Barrow's Straits, should turn their attention northward 
to Wellington Channel, and westward to Cape Walker, and should 
then be governed by circumstances, — sailing either in concert or sepa- 
rately, They were to enter and search every headland, promontory, 
and conspicuous point for signs or records of the missing party ; but 
on no account was the safety of officers or ships to be hazarded by 
unnecessary exposure. Should Lieutenant DeHaven find it impossible 
to reach Barrow's Straits, he was to turn his attention to Jones' and 
Smith's Sounds ; and if these were found to be either closed or impen- 
etrable, and he should fail to secure any trace of the missing expedi- 
tion, he must return to New York, as the season would probably be 
then too far advanced for any further attempt to be made. A like 
provision for avoiding a second winter in the Arctic regions in- 
structed him that, if after entering the strait he should be unable 
to penetrate sufficiently far into the unexplored regions to gain a 
position from which operations could be favorably commenced in 
the season of 1851, he was to endeavor to escape from the ice, and 
return. 



Sept. 9, 1841; promoted to be passed midsliipman, Aug. 10. 1847. William Mm-daugh 
entered the service as midshipman, Sept. 9, 1841; promoted to be passed midshipman, 
Aug. 10, 1847; master, Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant, Sept. 16, 1855; resigned, April, 1861. 
William J. Lovell entered the service as midshipman, Nov. 8, 1847; promoted to be 
passed midshipman, June, 1853; master, Sept. 15, 1855; lieutenant, Sept. 16, 1855; re- 
signed, May 3, 1859. R. R. Carter entered the service as midshipman, March 30, 1842; 
promoted to be passed midshipman, Aug. 15, 1848; master, Sept. 15, 1855; lieutenant, 
Sept. 16, 1855; resigned. May, 1861. Dr. E. K. Kane entered the service as assistant- 
surgeon, July 21, 1843; promoted to be passed assistant-surgeon, Sept. 14, 1848; died in 
Havana, Feb. 16, 1857. Dr. B. Yreeland entered the service as assistant-surgeon, May 
9, 1850; promoted to be passed assistant-surgeon, March 30, 1857; surgeon, April 26, 
1861; died, March 26, 1866. 



d^haven's instructions. 49 

The chief object of the expedition — the search for Sir John 
Franklin ^: required that for this he should use all diligence, and make 
every exertion, offering assistance, and communicating his plans and 
route to any British parties engaged in a like search whom he might 
meet. 

He was, however, to pay attention to subjects of scientific inquiry, 
but not to allow such attention to interfere with the main object. 
In view of the facts elicited by Lieutenant Maury in support of 
the theory of a Polynia, or "open sea," beyond the icy barrier, 
in which investigation Lieutenant DeHaven had shared, his instruc- 
tions had in view the hope of an entrance into that basin. And should 
he possibly penetrate beyond the barrier so far as to make it more pru- 
dent to go on than to turn back, he was to push forward and put him- 
self in communication with any of the United States forces serving in 
the waters of the Pacific, or in China. The officers there stationed 
were instructed to be ready, in such event, to offer to him every 
facility. Notwithstanding his instructions on these and other points, 
DeHaven was permitted to depart from them, if on arriving out he 
should find that by so doing his search would probably be more 
effectual. 

At the Brooklyn navy-yard the expedition received every aid in the 
way of equipment usually furnished from special naval stores, and in 
addition Mr. Grinnell provided far more for the object and comforts of 
the expedition than was asked for by its officers. The vessels them- 
selves Dr. Kane has described as, perhaps, more thoroughly adapted for 
Arctic service than any previously fitted out. The hull was doiible, a 
brig within a brig, an outer oak sheathing of two and a half inches 
being covered with a second of the same material, strips of heavy sheet- 
iron extending from bow to beam. The decks were double, an(^ made 
water-tight by an interlined packing of tarred felt, and the entire inte- 
rior was ceiled with cork. 

" Forward, from kelson to deck, was a mass of solid timber for seven 
feet from the cutwater; and to prevent the ice from forcing in her 
sides, an extra set of beams ran athwart her length at intervals of four 
feet, so arranged as to ship or unship. From the Samson-posts, shores 



50 AlVIERICAK EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

diverged in every direction, with as many hanging and oblique oaken 
knees as the space permitted. The rudder could be taken on board 
and replaced again in four minutes. In all respects, everything 
about the two vessels bore the marks of intelligent foresight and 
unsparing expenditure." 

Of the nautical equipment, the chronometers were especially ap- 
proved ; several of them having been carefully tested at the Observa- 
tory, one under charge of Passed Midshipman Murdaugh varying on 
the cruise, from May 18, 1850, to October 3, 1851, 10 min. 45 sec. By 
the aid of Professor Loomis, Kane had collected some instruments for 
thermal and magnetic registration ; his private journal furnishes a 
meteorological abstract of more than thirty pages for his narrative 
of the expedition. The two ships left the navy-yard May 22, crowds 
upon the wharves, and cheers from ferry-boats, steamers, and ships 
showing the popular sympathy until the Battery was passed. Off 
Sanc'7 Hook friends on board left for home, Mr. Grinnell and his 
sons continuing to bear company with the ships in a pilot-boat to 
a point reached on the 25th, seventy-five miles further east. 

The commander said, in his farewell report to the Department, that 
all were well, and seemingly inspired with the right spirit for the suc- 
cess of the expedition. Officers and crews were volunteers ; and it is 
to their lasting credit that the late Admiral Sherard Osborn, one of 
the most distinguished of British Arctic navigators, should have been 
able to say, '' I was charmed to hear that before sailing, officers and 
men had signed a bond not to claim, under any circumstances, the 
£20,000 reward which the British government had offered. We, I am 
sorry to say, had acted differently." The "Advance" reached St. 
Johns, Newfoundland, June 8, and DeHaven reported that the east 
winds and several gales had occasioned slow progress; he had not 
unwillingly parted with the " Rescue," whose slower sailing qualities 
had additionally detained him. The Whale-fish Islands were to be the 
rendezvous. Arriving at these on the 29th, he reported that on the 
east coast of Newfoundland many icebergs had been met, in striking 
against one of which, in lat. 49° 3', the "Advance" had lost a jib- 
boom. From that date he had a clear sea within one hundred miles of 



kane's early life. 51 

the islands ; the '' Rescue," by steermg further east, had seen but few 
icebergs. 

From the islands, officers and men once more sent home their letters 
by the storeship of Commodore Austin's squadron there, out in the 
search; their next and last were sent from Port Leopold, Beecbey 
Island, August 23, no further opportunity offering until their return to 
New York, October 4, 1851. 

The history of the expedition from the date of August 29 appears 
in the report of the commander, made on his return, and more in 
detail in Dr. Kane's narrative of the first United States Grinnell expe- 
dition. To Dr. Kane the world is indebted for the graphic history of 
each expedition, as well as for his brilliant services in both. His sin- 
gular qualifications for each calling are best referred to in the following 
brief sketch, drawn chiefly from his biography, written by Dr. William 
Elder, of Philadelphia. 

Born in Philadelphia, February 20, 1820, he early developed a frame 
fitted for athletic exercises, but showed tendencies to disease which, 
it will be seen, manifested themselves throughout his whole life to 
a degree which would have shut out from active duty any one not 
exercising the iron will exhibited. 

Seemingly unappreciative of the value of systematic study until 
his sixteenth yeai*, he then distinguished himself at the University of 
Virginia by his pursuit of an elective course in the natural sciences, 
and, during the short period which his health permitted, aided Pro- 
fessor Rogers in his investigation of the geology of the Blue Mountain 
range. A long and severe illness caused him to w^ithdraw from the 
university, but on his recovery he entered on the study of medicine 
at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating at the head of his 
class in his twentieth year, with the honor of having his theme, on a 
special subject in medicine, requested for publication by the Faculty. 

Dr. Kane entered the naval service July 21, 1843, and in the same 
year sailed on board the United States frigate ' Brandywine,' Com 
modore Parker, as surgeon to the United States embassy to China, 
under the late Mr. Caleb Cushing. Touching at Rio Janeiro, he had 
the opportunity of examining the geological character of the eastern 



52 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Andes, and on the arrival of the ship at Bombay, of visiting the 
famous caverned temples of Elephanta, and of crossing the Ghauts at 
Kandalah, and exploring the cave temples of Karli, passing thence to 
Ceylon. 

He remained in connection with the embassy until the close of its 
work by the treaty of July, 1844, and then, procuring a substitute, 
crossed to the Philippines, traversed the island of Luzon from Manilla 
to the Pacific coast, and descended the volcano of Tael — a feat but 
once before attempted by a foreigner, and then without success. By 
this descent he subjected ] imself to an encounter with the natives, 
who considered it a profana/on. 

After three and a half years' private practice as surgeon at 
Whampoa, on his recovery from the rice fever, he sailed in January, 
1845, for Singapore, and thence fcr Alexandria, visiting some of the 
wonders of Egypt. He was seized with the plague, on recovering from 
which he made a restorative foot journey in Greece, and later exam- 
ined the glaciers of the Alps of Switzerland, to which he afterward 
had occasion to make frequent references in his ice theories of the 
Arctic regions. 

In May following he was again on board ship, under orders for 
the coast of Africa, on which voyage — although, when the fever had 
broken out on board, he had written of his good health — he was 
stricken down, and sent home invalided by Dr. Dillard, the surgeon 
of the fleet. 

When convalescent, he was an early applicant for duty in Mexico. 
The war between the United States and that country had witnessed 
the surrender of the capital. Dr. Kane was selected by President 
Polk to be the bearer of an oral dispatch to the general-in-chief, which 
had three times failed in its delivery from the War Department. He 
was ordered also to make special investigations of facts relating to the 
field and hospital organizations of the American army for the War 
Department. 

Threading his way through the Mexican country, he received a 
severe lance wound in an encounter with a party of Mexicans, from 
the effect of which he lay ill until July following in Philadelphia. In 



ORDERS TO DR. KANE. 53 

February, 1849, he was again on naval service on board the storeship 
"Supply," and returned to Philadelphia from the Mediterranean in 
September. His next service, the year following, was again on the 
Mexican coast, on duty for the United States Coast Survey. 

His application for duty on the first Grinnell expedition was long 
unanswered, probably from the record of his past frequent severe ill- 
nesses ; but, at the moment of entire despondency, he \^as placed 
under orders, in the manner which he himself best describes as fol- 
lows : " On the 12th of May I received one of those courteous little 
epistles from Washington, which the electric telegraph has made so 
familiar to naval officers. It detached me from the Coast Survey, and 
ordered me to proceed forthwith to New York, for duty on the Arctic 
expedition. Seven and a half days later I had accomplished my over- 
land journey of thirteen hundred miles, and in forty hours more our 
squadron was beyond the limits of the United States. The Depart- 
ment had calculated my travelling time to a nicety." It was certainly 
the exhibition of most exceptional characteristics, that one who had 
the ever-present consciousness of liability to prostration by disease 
should apply for^nd enter with such alacrity on duty within the rigors 
of the Arctic zone. But it was a service congenial to his nature, and 
in keeping with his varied experiences in other regions. His future 
records will show with what skill he turned all those experiences to 
good account, applying the resources gained from the natural sciences, 
and from explorations in other zones, to the widely different life on 
which he now entered. 

June 17, 1850, when the ships drew^near Davis' Straits, they found 
themselves near Cape Farewell on the east, and Frobisher's Meta 
Incognita on the American side. The Arctic days began, the ther- 
mometer being read at night without a lantern, and the sun setting at 
ten, to rise again before two. On the 24th the sun did not pass below 
the horizon. The words night and day began to be meaningless, and 
the soothing influence of darkness was missed at the bed-hour. But 
the regular calls for rising and for meals were steadily observed. In 
common with all others resident or voyaging in the Arctic regions, 



54 AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

officers and crew now found within themselves the power of adapta- 
tion to their new circumstances ; without this power, light and dark- 
ness during the periods of the zone could not be endured. 

From the Whale-fish Islands the passage to Lancaster Sound was to 
be made by one of the three crossings, — the south, the middle, or the 
northern. 

By the first of these, vessels reach the American side south of 68°.. 
It is but the alternative for whalers when failing to cross the 
North Water. Attempts of the middle passage are rare. In 1819, 
Parry first crossed it in seven days, but, on repeating the experiment, 
July, 1824, was forced to turn northward, and did not reach the open 
water till September. The north passage passes westward from the 
ice of Melville Bay, through a comparatively open area, known as the 
North Water, and through this, ships generally reach the liighway of 
Arctic search. This crossing was now the object of the expedition. 
The bay itself, ice-clogged and full of danger, had been, since its 
opening in 1819, the scene of the loss of two hundred and ten ships. 

The time for reaching the North Water varies, as DeHaven well 
knew, with the season. Parry's delay was to be contrasted with that 
of the five days of Sir John Ross in 1829; Austin, now out in the 
search, was found to have been kept back forty-five days ; and it may 
be mentioned here that eight years afterwards, McClintock, in the 
" Fox," passed a dreary winter in the pack. " Nothing," he said, " is 
more uncertain than ice navigation ; one can only calculate upon the 
chances." Avoiding the middle passage, on the 6th of July DeHaven 
was in lat. 72° 54', beating to windward, between the pack and the 
land; on the 8th he was boring and sometimes warping — "help- 
lessly fast." After an imprisonment of twenty-one days, during which 
he had made an average northern progress of about a mile a day, a 
steady north and northwest breeze began to relax the ice, and on the 
10th of August he was crossing Melville Bay. Midday gave them the 
warm skies of the Mediterranean, and on the 18th the expedition 
reached its most northern point in Baffin's Bay, latitude 76° 25', the 
next day entering Lancaster Sound. Crowding all sail for Port Leo- 
pold, Beechey Island, they now had the pleasant sight of two of the 



IN THE NORTH WATER. 



55 



relief ships of that year, the " Felix," Sir John Ross, and the " Prince 
Albert," Captain Forsyth. In concert with these officers, the first 
traces of the missing ships were now found. 

From Port Leopold, DeHaven reported to the Department that he 
had found little difficulty in forcing his way to that point until he had 
reached latitude 74°, where the ice had closed, and was continuous 
along the land, so that northward progress was barred, while a clear 
and wide opening to the west tempted his course in that direction. 
After a run of forty miles, however, the ships were wedged, and 
remained so till July 
29, when the ice sud- 
denly opening, and a 
southeast wind spring- 
ing up, they forced 
their way into clear 
water, and, after an- 
other detention in lat- 
itude 75°, longitude 
60°, pushed on to Cape 
York, and on the 19th 
of August were in the 
North Water. Meet- 
ing soon after Captain 
Penny's ships, he re- 
solved to touch at Port Leopold with them. Here he met with an 
unexpected discovery. 

In his final report he says : " On the 25th of August, 1850, off Cape 
Riley, the ' Advance ' was hove to, and a boat sent ashore to examine 
a cairn erected in a conspicuous position. It was found to contain a 
record of H.B.M. ship 'Assistance,' deposited the day before, con- 
taining the information that Captain Ommaney, R.N., had discovered 
traces of an encampment, and other indications of a camping-ground 
of some civilized or hunting party. Fragments of painted wood and 
preserved-meat cans were also picked up on the low point of the 
Cape. Our speculations at once connected them with the object 




THE CROW S NEST. 



b6 AINIERICAN EXPL0RATI0I!^S IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of our search. Captain Griffin, of the ' Rescue,' had shared in these 
discoveries." 

Of these traces Kane says, that although they were meagre indica- 
tions, the conclusion they led to was irresistible. Bird-bones and the 
rib of a seal were found in a centre, around which a party seemed to 
have sat eating, and with the tins were other relics, such as pieces of a 
garment, and parts of a boat, apparently collected for kindling wood. 
These could not have been the work of Eskimos, and Parry, the only 
'European who before this had visited the Cape, had not encamped 
here. The indications were those of a land party from Franklin's 
squadron. 

DeHaven pressed onward along the eastern shore of Wellington 
Channel. Passing Beechey Island, and running through a narrow lead, 
he found the ice above Point Innes fixed and unbroken from shore to 
shore — generally eight feet thick, the sharp, angular hummocks rounded 
down by the action of the weather. Further progress to the north 
was out of the question. Returning to Point Innes for security until a 
favorable change should take place, he found himself, on the 27th, in 
company with two English commands — Sir John Ross's and Penny's. 

Captain Penny, in company with Dr. Goodsir, brother of an assist- 
ant-surgeon on board the missing vessels, here reported that they had 
found, between Cape Spencer and Port Innes, scraps of newspaper of 
the date of 1844, with other paper fragments bearing the name of an 
officer, and other small articles of personal wear. Consulting with 
Ross and Penny, a joint search was then instituted along shore in all 
directions. In a short time one of Penny's men reported the discovery 
of graves, and the commanders, DeHaven, Penny, and Phillips, joined 
by a party from the " Rescue," after a weary walk, found the three 
memorials which follow. They were painted headboards, with inscrip- 
tic ns cut by the chisel : — 

" Sacred to the memory of 

W. Braine, R.M., 

H.M.S. Erebus. 

Died, April 3, 1846, 

aged 32 years. 

' Choose ye this day wliom ye will serve.' — Joshua ch. xxiv. 15. 



THE THREE GRAVES. ' 5T 

" Sacred to the memory of 
John Hartnell, A.B., of H.M.S. 

EllEBUS, 

aged 23 years. 
' Thus saith the Lord, consider your ways.' — Haggai ii. 7. 

" Sacred to the memory of 

John Tokkington, 

who departed this life, Jan'y 1, a.d. 184G, 

on board of 

H.M. Ship Tekrok,* 

aged 29 years." 

Tliese sad memorials, with a series of mounds filled with fragment- 
ary remains (some of them written astronomical and other notes), 
and especially rows of six hundred preserved-meat cans, proved be- 
yond dispute that the missing ships had made some stay here. The 
cans had been emptied, and filled with limestone pebbles, probably to 
serve as ballast on boating expeditions. At Cape Riley and Beechey, 
another cairn, found in a conspicuous position, was dug round in every 
direction, and between the hills, which come down towards Beechey 
Island, the searching parties of the " Rescue," and Mr. Murdaugh of 
the "Advance," found the tracks of a sledge clearly defined, and unmis- 
takable, both as to character and direction, pointing to the eastern 
shores of Wellington Sound. Additional proofs of Franklin having 
organized sledge parties were found in the tracks of sledge runners 

* In 1858 Lieutenant McClintock placed here a. marble tablet, which had been con- 
structed in ISTew York, under the direction of Mr. Grinnell, by request of Lady Franklin, 
and which Captain Hartstene, U.S.N"., in 1855, had been unable to take to this place. A 
small tablet is also to be found here, sent out by Mr. John Barrow, in memory of Lieu- 
tenant Bellot, of France, who went out as volunteer in the English expedition of 1853, 
and perished in the ice. Lady Franklin's monument reads : — 

" Franklin, 
Orozier, Fitzjames, 

and all their j 

gallant brother officers, and faithful 

companions who have suffered and perished 

in the cause of science, and the 

service of their country, 

THIS TABLET 

is erected near the spot where 

they passed their first Arctic 

winter, and Avhence they issued 

forth to conquer difficulties or 

TO DIE." 



68 



AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



still visible in the limestone crust and upon snow-slopes; on which 
Kane remarks, '' It was startling to see the evidences of a travel nearly 
six years old preserved in intaglio on so perishable a material. The 
alternations of congelation and thaw give to the Arctic snows at times 
an ice-like durability, but these tracts had been covered by the after- 
snows of five winters." 

These few memorials of the navigators, so long lost to history, were 
all that told of them. Not a written memorandum could be found, 

or a pointing 
""^- .iisft ._, cross, or even 

the vaguest in- 
timation of the 
intentions en- 
tertained by 
Franklin when 
;it this point. 
His route was 
to be learned 
only from the 
explorations to 
be made at a 
much later date 
by McClintock. 
The world can 
never know anything of the written notices which, according to his 
instructions, Franklin was to deposit at this place. 

From the date of these most interesting discoveries DeHaven 
endeavored to push westward and northward, reaching Barlow's Inlet 
September 4, and passing through a lead along the south side of Corn- 
wallis Island, where the English searching vessels were descried, fast 
in the ice. This western lead, however, closing, he was also compelled 
to make fast, and the ice being exceedingly unfavorable for further 
progress, and the season far advanced, after consultation with the com- 
mander of the " Rescue," he decided that according to his instructions, 
as they " had not gained a point from wdiich advantageous operations 




^r!^'»f^. 



THE THREE GRAVES. 



THE SHIPS BESET. ^59 

could be commenced," it was an imperative duty to extricate the sliips 
and return home. September 13, he signalled to the " Rescue '' to 
cast off. 

But the return within that season was quickly overruled by forces 
utterly beyond control. After leaving their English friends, the two 
ships of Lieutenant De Haven were caught fast in the new ice in the 
midst of Wellington Channel, and although the wind for a short sea- 
son bore from the north and east, the drift began steadily to set north- 
ward up the channel. Through the whole of October and November 
the changing winds drifted them helpless to and fro, but never drove 
them out of the strait. From December 1, the eastward drift brought 
them by January 14 into Baffin's Baj. Here the ice around the ves- 
sels soon became again cemented and fixed, but the ships kept driving 
southward along with the whole mass until the close of the first week 
in June. Cut out as usual with saws, axes, and crowbars, and Avith 
the rudders again shipped, they then forced their way into an open, 
clear sea in latitude 6b° 30'; and the "Advance" a second time cast 
anchor at Disco on the 17th of July ; the "• Rescue," which had more 
than once suffered severely, coming in next day. 

From Disco the ships touched again at Proven and Upernavik. 
Alternately closed in, and then with hard labor released, they finally 
left Holsteinborg for New York September 6, 1851. The commander, 
referring to the instructions, which enjoined him not to spend, if it 
could be avoided, more than one winter in the Arctic regions, had of 
necessity resolved to give up the search, "with sad hearts that our 
labors had served to throw so little light upon it." His reports and 
Kane's narrative dilate at large on the traces of Franklin which have 
been described, and upon their disappointments at two later dates, at 
each of which the hope of renewed efforts had lingered. 

The first of these was at the beginning of the winter of 1850-51, 
when they found they were not fixed, as they had hoped to be, in a 
position from which operations could be carried on by travelling par- 
ties in the spring : " the ships were fast being set out of the region of 
search." The remaining disappointment was at the close of August of 
the second year, when the ships stood again to the northwest in the 



60 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Greenland Sea, but the lead before them closing at the distance of a 
few miles, and the ice appearing as unfavorable as ever, they did not 
deem it prudent to run the risk of being again beset, and considered 
that even if successful in crossing the pack, it would be too late to 
attain a point as far west as had been reached the year previous. 

Important geographical discoveries had been secured. Dr. Kane's 
journal of September 21 and 22, at the date named, reads : " When in 
latitude 75° north, the sky being clear, and the position of the sun 
favorable, I saw distinctly, bearing north by west, a series of hilltops 
(not mountains), apparently of the same configuration with those 
around us, anc\ separated from Cornwallis Island by a strip of low 
beach, or by water and land to the north and west ; its horizon that of, 
low ground, without bluffs, and terminating abruptly at its northern 
end. Still further on to the north came a strip without visible land 
again, with mountain tops distant and * rising above the clouds.' " To 
this large mass of land visible between northwest to north-northeast, 
which De Haven also distinctly observed, he gave the name of Grin- 
nell Land ; to the peak bearing north-northeast, and distant about 
forty miles, the name of Mount Franklin ; and to an inlet discovered 
by Acting Master Griffin, in a land excursion, the name of Griffin 
Inlet. In May of the following year these were seen and visited by 
one of the officers of Captain Penny. On the admiralty charts and 
those issued by the United States hydrographic office. Penny's Strait 
and Grinnell Land will be found laid down. 

When the American expedition had found itself at Murdaugh Islet, 
near Cornw^allis Island, a wide channel appeared before them, leading 
to the westward, the frost smoke hanging over which seemed to indi- 
cate a large area of open water in that direction, and the signs of 
animal life were abundant. To the channel appearing to lead into this 
supposed sea DeHaven gave the name of '' Maury," in remembrance of 
the investigations on the theory of " an open polar sea," to which the 
instructions of the Secretary had referred him as having shared at the 
Observatory. The conjectures made by the expedition that Franklin 
had passed up this channel were afterwards confirmed; his return 
through it, and southward drift, added nothing in favor of the theory. 



COMMENDATION OF THE SECRETARY. 61 

It had been an additional disappointment to DeHaven and his officers 
that, after sight of the westward channel and its indications, he \yas 
debarred from pressing forward in the direction in which he believed 
the greatest chances for success in the search existed, and also from 
entering within the mysterious basin. 

The Secretary of the Navy, in his report of November 29, 1851, 
said : — 

" The expedition under Lieutenant-Commanding DeHaven to the 
Arctic seas, in search of the British commander. Sir John Franklin, and 
his companions, returned to the port of New York in October, having 
discovered only supposed traces of the objects of which it was in 
quest, and leaving in entire uncertainty their actual fate. The vessels 
of the expedition proceeded in the direction where, in the opinion of 
the best-informed officers, the missing navigators are to be sought, and 
on which the traces in question were found. Though failing in the 
main object of their search. Lieutenant DeHaven and his officers veri- 
fied by their explorations many facts before unknown to science, but 
indicated in the course of investigations carried on at the Naval Obser- 
vatory, concerning the winds and currents, and to which reference was 
made in instructions for the expedition. 

" In this expedition the officers and men were all volunteers ; in its 
prosecution they encountered the greatest dangers and hardships. To 
mention a single example : their vessel was caught by the ice and 
frozen up in the open sea, in which perilous situation they were con- 
fined for nine months, and drifted to and fro in the ice for more than 
a thousand miles. By the skill of the officers, and the mercy of a 
superintending Providence, they were released from their imprison- 
ment, and restored to their country and friends, not a man having been 
lost in the expedition. They have received no other pay than would 
have been due on a cruise to Naples or the Levant, and t would 
respectfully suggest that they be allowed the same pay and emol- 
uments that were granted to those in like positions in the last expedi- 
tion to the South seas. 

" Mr. Henry Grinnell, the owner of the vessels employed by Lieu- 
tenant DeHaven, has generously offered them for another cruise in 



62 a:mekican explorations in the ice zones. 

search of Sir John Franklin, should Congress think proper to order a 
second expedition." 

No condensation can be justly made of the graphic notices journal- 
ized by Kane of the natural features of the Arctic zone, its icebergs, 
hummocks, and floes, and especially its glaciers ; of the beautiful dis- 
plays of refraction and the auroras ; or of the fauna and flora exam- 
ined. The forms of the glacier and berg, in their fantastic varieties 
and swift transformations and disappearance, frequently brought to his 
mind memories of the objects visited with such pleasure in the Old 
World. This will appear by a single extract : — 

" July 5, 11 P.M. A strip of horizon, commencing about 8° to the 
east of the sun, and between it and the land, resembled an extended 
plain, covered with the debins of ruined cities. No effort of imagina- 
tion was necessary for me to travel from the true watery horizon to the 
false one of refraction above it, and there to see huge structures lining 
an aerial ocean margin. Some of rusty, Egyptian, rubbish-clogged 
propyla, and hypoethral courts ; some tapering and columnar, like Pal- 
myra, Baalbec ; some with architrave and portico, like Telmessus or 
Athens, or else vague and grotto-like, such as dreamy memories recalled 
of Ellora and Carli. 

" T can hardly realize it as I write ; but it was no trick of fancy. 
The things were there half an hour ago. I saw them, capricious, ver- 
satile, full of forms, but bright and definite as the phases of sober life. 
And as my eyes ran round upon the marvellous and varying scene, 
every one of these well-remembered cities rose before me, built up by 
some suggestive feature of the ice. 

''An iceberg is one of God's own buildings, preaching its lessons of 
humility to the miniature structures of man. Its material, one 
colossal Pentelicus ; its mass the representative of power in repose ; 
its distribution simulating every architectural type. It makes one 
smile at those classical remnants which our own period reproduces in 
its Madeleines, Walhallas, and Girard Colleges, like university poems 
in the dead languages. Still, we can compare them with the iceberg ; 
for the same standard measures both, as it does Chimborazo and the 
Tiill of Howth. But this thing of refraction is supernatural through- 



ARCTIC PHANTASMAGORIA. 63 

out. The wildest frolic of an opium-eater's revery is nothing to the 
phantasmagoria of the sky to-night. Karnaks of ice, turned upside 
down, were resting upon the rainbow-colored pedestals ; great needles, 
obelisks of pure whiteness, shot up above their false horizons, and, 
after an hour-glass-like contraction at their point of union with their 
duplicated images, lost themselves in the blue of the upper sky. 

"While I was looking — the sextant useless in my hands, for I 
could not think of angles — a blurred and wavy change came over the 
fantastic picture. Prismatic tin tings, too vague to admit of dioptric 
analysis, began to margin my architectural marbles, and the scene 
faded like one of Fresnel's dissolving views. Suddenly, by a flash, 
they reappeared in full beauty ; and, just as I was beginning to note in 
my memorandum-book the changes which this brief interval had pro- 
duced, the}' went out entirely, and left a nearly clear horizon." 

The display of such weird and ever-changing scenery in the arch 
above him, happily for the time being, takes from the Arctic explorer 
all sense of even the extreme peril in which he is placed. A noted 
instance of this will be found in the experience of the officers of the 
" Jeannette," as cited in Chapter X. of this volume. In the case especially 
of Lieut. Chipp, it is some little consolation to remember, that during 
so many hours of the fearful imprisonment of the ship, his official duty 
lay in observations of phenomena attractive and elevating, and of high 
value in scientific inquiry. 

No occupation, however, in which Dr. Kane engaged was permitted 
to interfere with his services as medical officer to the expedition, 
and these were called into most active requisition during the winter 
of 1851, when the dreaded scurvy assailed every officer and many of 
the crews. His commander reported that every case was kept under 
control by the unwearied attention and skilful treatment of the medi- 
cal officers, and that it was in a great measure owing to the advice 
and the expedients recommended by the senior officer that the expedi- 
tion was able to return without the loss of a man. Kane himself was 
down with the disease, and his old wound became discolored and 
painful ; but out on the floes his energies were excited and his blood 



64 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

warmed, and he tramped away freely. The powers of endurance and 
of restoration from repeated attacks of disease enabling him thus to 
save others, and to prepare himself for a renewed exploration, were 
those not ordinarily possessed or shown to the world. They were kept 
alive, doubtless, by the iron will-power within, and by the variety of 
pursuits of his every-day life, — the observations, during all hours, of 
the wonders of nature; the pursuit of game, whenever opportunity 
offered, and the familiarizing himself with the movements of the ships, 
and the duties of their navigation pertaining to the executive and 
the watch officer. By this last experience he fitted himself to com- 
mand in person the second expedition, in which he was soon to awaken 
an interest in the United States. 





E. K. KANE, ]\r.D., SURGEON OF THE FIRST GRINNELL EXPEDITION; 

COMMANDER OF THE SECOND. 



Author of "The U.S. Grinnell Expedition under DeHaven," 1850-52; of "Arctic Explorations," 
1853-55. Assistant Surgeon in the Naval service, July 21, 1843; promoted to be Passed Assistant Sur- 
geon, Sept. 14, 1848; Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society of London and of the Soci^te de Geo- 
graphic of Paris. Died at Havana, Feb. 15, 1857. 



CHAPTER HI. 

THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION (1853-55)., 

the expedition designed by kane. — contributors. — paper read 
before the geographical society of new york. — assistance 
by the secretary of the navy. — officers of the "advance." — 
fiskepvnaes. — crossing melville bay. — the "advance" moored 
to an iceberg. — rensselaer harbor. — provision depots for 
spring explorations. — the observatory. — daily ship-life. — 
Morton's reported polar sea. — the brig fixi^d in the ice. — 
attempt to reach beechey island. — nine of the company 
leave for the south ; their return. — scurvy. — the brig 
abandoned. — boat and sledge journey southward. — rescue 
of kane by captain hartstene at disco. — arrival at new 
york. — reports to the department. — summary of results. — 
appreciation by the british government. — publications of 

THE NARRATIVE. — KANE's FAILING HEALTH. — REQUEST OF LADY 

franklin to hum to undertake a new expedition. — he sails 
for england. — return voyage. — death. — funeral honors 
at hat'ana, new orleans, cincinnati, c0lu3ibus, baltimore, 

an: 

THE second American expedition in search of the lost navigators 
is to be credited chiefly to Dr. Kane. It was made under the 
auspices of the Navy Department, the Smithsonian Institution,. 
the Geographical Society of New York, and the American Philosophi- 
cal Society ; with contributions from a number of other scientific asso- 
ciations and friends of science, chiefly in Boston, New York, and Phil- 
adelphia. Professors Henry and Bache, and Lieutenant Maury again 
rendered efficient aid. Mr. Grinnell placed the "Advance" at Kane's 
disposal, making further contributions in money and supplies, and Mr. 
Peabody, of London, paid down the sum of ten thousand dollars. 
Kane himself freely contributed from his private means and from the 
proceeds of his lectures. 



66 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

For months after his return with DeHaven he had occupied himself 
in maturing the scheme of a renewed effort to rescue the missing 
party, or at least to solve the mystery of their fate. " The object of 
my journey," he said, "is the search after Sir John Franklin; neither 
science nor the vainglory of attaining an unreached Nortli shall divert 
me from this one conscientious aim." He could not realize that some 
of the party might not yet be alive ; that some small squad, or squads, 
aided by the Eskimos of the expedition, might not have found a hunt- 
ing-ground, and laid up from summer to summer enough of fuel and 
food and seal-skins to brave three, or even four more winters in suc- 
cession. Even at a late date on this second voj^age he wrote, "If four 
months ago, surrounded by darkness and bound down by disease, I had 
been asked the question, ' Can they have survived?' I would have turned 
towards the bleak hills and the frozen sea, and responded, in sj^mpathy 
with them, ' No ! ' But with the return of light, a savage people came 
down upon us, destitute of any but the rudest appliances of the chase, 
but fattening on the most wholesome diet of the region, only forty 
miles from our anchorage, while I was denouncing its scarcity. 

" In my opinion, the vessels cannot have been suddenly destroyed, 
or, at least, so destroyed that provisions and stores could not have 
been established in a safe and convenient dep6t. With this view, 
which, all my experience of ice sustains, comes the collateral question 
as to the safety of the documents of the expedition. 

" If the natives reached the seat of the missing ships of Franklin, 
and there became possessed, by pilfer or by barter, of the articles sent 
home by Eae and Anderson, this very fact would explain the ability of 
some of the party to sustain life among them. If, on the other hand, 
the natives have never reached the ships, or the seat of their stores, 
and the relics were obtained from the deserted boat, then the central 
stores or ships are unmolested, and ^ome may have been able, by these 
and the hunt, even 3^et to sustain life." 

At the meeting of the Geographical Society of New York, De- 
cember 14, 1852, he read a paper developing his plan of search. It 
presented the inducements of terra finaa as the basis of operations, — a 
due northern line to lead soonest to the open sea, animal life to sustain 



DR. kane's plans. 67 

travelling parties, and the co-operation of the Eskimos. He believed 
in the probable extension of the land masses of Greenland to the far 
North ; that iti highest protruding headland would be most likely to 
aftbrd some traces of the lost party ; and that the approximation of the 
meridians would make the access from the point reached to the West 
as easy as from Wellington Channel, and access to the East far more 
easy. The Northern point he hoped to attain would be tw<5 hundred 
and twenty miles north of Beechey Island, and seventy miles north of 
the highest then reached in Wellington Channel. He would pass up 
Baffin's Bay to this most northern point, and then press on towards 
the Pole as far as boats or sledges could carry a select party of not 
more than twenty — "a picked crew." 

In support of his belief of the extension of Greenland to the far 
North, Kane adduced, among other arguments, the analogy between its 
general contour and that of the Southern Peninsidas of the world, 
specially in reference to their inward concave bend on the Western 
side — toward the interior. He made a strong point of the increasing 
elevation of the Greenland peaks from South to North. The basis of 
his belief in the existence of an Open Polar Sea, as confirmed by this 
second expedition, will receive subsequent attention in this volume. 

The lectures excited much interest. At Washington, the officers of 
the Government had listened with close attention, some of the Senators 
committing themselves to the support of a Bill for an appropriation for 
the voyage. But although Congress did not fail to appreciate the 
results of the first expedition, — providing, by an Act of the later date 
of August 31, the pay of fleet-surgeon for its senior medical officer, with 
that of the next higher rank to others, and additions to the compensa- 
tion of warrant and petty officers and crew, — no appropriation was 
made for this expedition. 

Despairing of receiving aid from Congress, Kane unfolded his plans 
to Secretary Kennedy, to whom he had been specially commended 
by the Chief of the Smithsonian and the Superintendents of the Coast 
Survey and the Observatory, as possessing peculiar qualities and varied 
sources of knowledge fitting him for the Exploration. The Navy 
Department promptly encouraged him. The Secretary did not hesitate 



68 ^VJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

to say that he would assist with every means authorized ; bringing the 
expedition under the control of the Government by placing him on 
special duty to conduct it under the direction of the Department. He 
detailed for him ten men from the Naval** Service, on their usual pay 
and rations, and furnished some nautical instruments, maps, and charts, 
and a few provisions. 

In his brief orders of November 27, 1852, and February 9, 1853, the 
Secretary referred to the solicitation of Lady Franklin that Kane 
should undertake the Expedition ; and, placing him on special duty for 
" the conduct of an overland journey from the upper waters of Baffin's 
Bay to the shores of the Polar Seas," invited his attention to Scientific 
inquiry, particularly to the existence of an open sea, and to the sub- 
jects of terrestrial magnetism, general meteorology, and natural history. 
No specific instructions, usual on the departure of Naval expeditions, 
were offered. The Secretary added, " Relying on your zeal and dis- 
cretion, the Department sends you forth on an undertaking which will 
be attended with great peril and exposure ; trusting that you will be 
sustained by the laudable object in view, and wishing you success and 
a safe return to your friends." 

May 30, 1853, the "Advance" left New York on her second cruise, 
having on board seventeen persons. Dr. I. I. Hayes, of New York, 
was the surgeon, August Sontag, its astronomer, and Henry Brooks, 
of the first Expedition, second in command ; of the seamen, William 
Morton also had been with DeHaven and Kane. The equipment of 
the brig consisted of little more than a quantity of rough boards for 
housing the vessel in winter, some tents of india-rabber and canvas, 
and several carefully built sledges. Kane had some two thousand 
pounds of pemmican and a liberal supply of dried fruits and vegetables, 
with the usual navy rations ; a well-chosen library, furnished partly by 
Government and partly by Mr. Grinnell ; a moderate wardrobe of 
woollens; and a number of articles for barter. At St. Johns, New- 
foundland, he made his purchase of fresh beef, to be marled and hung 
in the rigging, and received from Governor Hamilton a noble team of 
Newfoundland dogs. July 1, he entered the harbor of Fiskernaes, too 



HANS HENDIIIK. 



69 



late in the season to obtain the fresh stores needed for the Expedition, 
but securing here the services of Hans Christian (or Hendrik), then 




PiiiPil 



iiiililllllil' 



'iililijPiilli!! 



HiiMIII 



liili!!- 



mm 



j^ 



a boy of nineteen, expert with the kayak and javelin. He proved so 
useful an assistant as to lead to his future engagements by Hayes, Hall, 
■and Captain Nares, of the English Expedition of 1875. Reaching 
Melville Bay on the 27 th, Kane found the shore ices so decayed, that 



70 AMEIMCAX EXPLORATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

he did not deem it advisable to attempt the usual passage along the fast 
floes of the land, but stood directly to the Northward and Eastward, until 
he met the middle pack. Here he headed nearly direct for Cape York. 
July 29, fearing a besetment, he decided to fasten to an iceberg, and 
after eight hours' warping, heaving, and planting ice-anchors, succeeded 
in effecting it; but he had hardly a breathing-spell before he was 
startled by a set of loud crackling sounds above, while small fragments 
of ice not larger than a walnut began to dot the w\ater, like the first 
drops of a summer shower. The indications were too plain ; he had 
barely time to cast off before. the face of the'berg fell in ruins, crashing 
like artillery. On the 31st, when anchored to a second berg, the con- 
tinued ice pressure began to affect it, and it took -up its march to the 
south. The brig was secured to a much larger one, the course of 
which was steadily northward, the loose ice drifting by on each side, 
leaving a wake of black Avater for a mile behind the ship. At 10 p.m., 
being in immediate danger, she again got off in a lead to tlie northeast, 
pushing over in spite of the drifting trash. "The midnight sun came 
out over the northern crest of the great berg, kindling variously- 
colored fires on every part of its surface, and making the ice around 
one great resplendency of gemwork,* blazing carbuncles, and rubies, 
and molten gold." Through all this jewelry the brig went crunching, 
and, after a tortuous progress of five miles, arrested here and there by 
tongues which required the saw and the ice-chisels, fitted herself neatly 
in between two floes. He succeeded in crossing the bay in ten days. 

August 7, the ^'Advance" reached the headland of Sir Thomas 
Smith's Sound, and passed be3^ond the highest point gained by Captain 
Inglefield, R.N. Still too far to the South to carry on his proposed 
search, Kane now attempted the penetration of a drifting pack which 
met him, selecting first a provision depot, and depositing in it some 
supplies and his life-boat. On the w^estern cape of Littleton Island he 
built his first cairn, wedging a staff into the rock crevices, on which he 
spread the American flag, and placing also near by a beacon, official 
despatches, and private letters of farewell. 

Entering the pack, the "xVdvance" found the ice hugging the 
American shore, and extending across the channel. Debarred from the 



RENSSELAER HARBOR. 71 

Northern passage on that side, after a temporary asylum in a land- 
locked bay, which he named liefuge Harbor, fearing lest the rapidly 
advancing cold might prevent further penetrating, Kane warped out 
and again made fast to an iceberg. Here the drifting pack outside was 
at first utterly impenetrable ; many bergs were driving backward and 
forward with the tides, and, pressing on the ice of the floes, had raised 
up hills from sixty to seventy feet high. Having no alternative but 
either to advance or discontinue the search, relying upon the strength 
of his ship, and the spirit and fidelity of his comrades, he determined 
if possible to press through the small interspace between the main 
pack and the coast, — an effort attended with a series of the severest 
experiences. Whenever the receding tides left deficient soundings, the 
ship Avas on her beam ends ; twice it was impossible to secure the 
stoves so as to prevent her from taking fire. August 29, when she 
reached latitude 78° 43', she had lost part of her starboard buhvarks, a 
quarter boat, her jib-boom, best bower anchor, and six hundred fathoms 
of hawser, but was herself in all essentials uninjured. 

Winter was now rapidly advancing, the rapid formation of young 
ice making it plain that it would soon cement itself. Kane's officers 
united in a written opinion in favor of returning to a more Southern 
harbor. But he was unwilling to lose a dearly purchased progress, and 
be removed from the intended observations. He immediately set out 
to seek a spot Avhich might be eligible for a starting-point for future 
travel. The party at first carried a whale-boat and sledge, but were 
compelled to abandon both. They advanced on foot to a point which 
the meridian observations of the theodolite placed in latitude 78° 52', 
longitude 78° 41' West, where the coast of Greenland was found facing 
plainly to the North. No spot, however, seemed to combine so many 
of the requisites for a Winter Harbor as that in which the ship had 
been left, and on the return of the party she was warped in between 
the islands, in a spot " secured against the moving ice, walled in to sea- 
ward, with an anchorage of a moderate depth of water, open to the 
meridian sunlight, and guarded from winds, eddies, and drifts," — but to 
remain near this point, as will hereafter be seen, fixed in the same ice, 
until the unknown date at which, after being abandoned by Dr. Kane, 



I'J. AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

she was destroyed. No vestige of her could be seen on the visit to 
Kenssalaer Harbor by Dr. Hayes, December, 1860. 

September 8, Dr. Hayes, Mr. Wilson, and Hans were sent inland, 
chiefly to determine how far a supply of game might be hoped for. 
This party, on the fourth day of a laborious travel, descended into a 
deep, broad valley, the bed of a river then nearly dry. They spent the 
night in their buffalo-skins on the rocks. Carrying each on his shoul- 
ders a weight of about thirty pounds, in continuance of their journey 
they clambered at first over rocks from which the snow had disappeared, 
but soon entered on a more enlivening prospect of beds of green moss 
tind turf. Patches of andromeda gave them here and there a carpet, 
and furnished fuel for their cooking. No evidences of life, however, 
were seen except some small herds of reindeer, a solitary rabbit, and 
the footmarks of a fox. At the end of a journey of ninety miles their 
progress was arrested by a glacier four hundred feet high, extending to 
the North and West as far as the eye could reach. It w^as midnight 
when they approached it, but the sun w^as a few degrees only beneath 
the horizon ; stars of the second, magnitude were dimly visible in the 
North ; and a brilliant meteor, falling just in advance of the travellers, 
greatly heightened the effect by its reflected light on this wall of pure 
Avhiteness. Along the base of the glacier was a snowbank fifty to sixty 
feet in height, rising at an angle of thirty degrees ; this was ascended, 
but the smooth ice-surface baffled all attempts to reach the summit of 
the glacier, which rose to an elevation of one hundred and sixty feet, 
rounding gradually off as it approached the Me?' de G-lace above. 
With all his dexterity Hans failed to secure any game. 

Dr. Kane's next step was to organize parties for establishing pro- 
vision dep6ts to facilitate researches in the Spring. The signs of 
intense cold were hastening ; by September 10 the thermometer had 
fiilien to 14°, the floes around the brig were cemented, and an iceberg 
had been frozen in, to be the companion of the party during their 
whole stay ; the birds, even the sea-swallows, had all gone South. 

The provisions brought out had not included hermetically sealed 
meats, and there seemed little ground of expecting game ; the salted 



THE OBSERVATORY. 73 

provisions Avere therefore put under a process of freshening by alter- 
nate soaking and freezing under the ice-crust of a fresh-water pond. 

The sled for the first dep6t party, which was under McGary and 
Bonsall, was modelled from one received from the British Admiralty, 
and measured thirteen feet by four. It readily carried fourteen hun- 
dred pounds. The cargo, exclusive of supplies for the journey, was 
chiefly pemmican, put up in wooden cases and tinned iron cylinders, 
strongly protected from the assaults of the bear. Upon the cargo was 
a light india-rubber boat, which Kane hoped could be launched on 
reaching open water. The seven men attached to the sled had each 
his own " Rue-ra-ddy," or shoulder-belt, and his track-rope, varying in 
length, to prevent his interference with another when walking abreast. 
Leaving the brig September 20, they reached their highest latitude, 
79° 50', making three important caches ; the third contained eight hun- 
dred pounds of pemmican. After they had been out twenty days, 
Kane pushed out to look for them ; and after a venturesome run across 
the ice-belt, where his dogs once failed to leap a chasm, he met them 
on their return, safe though nearly exhausted. 

Meanwhile, on one of the islets in Rensselaer Harbor, an Astro- 
nomical Observatory had been raised of four walls of granite blocks, 
cemented with moss and water and the never-failing aid of frost. 
They bore a substantial wooden roof. The pedestals were a con- 
glomerate of gravel and ice ; the transit and theodolite were thus free 
from vibration. A small magnetic observatory adjoined, in which 
Kane had his magnetometer and dip instrument ; and on the open ice- 
field was the wooden Meteorological Observatory, latticed and pierced' 
with auger-holes to allow the air to pass freely, its inner chamber, being 
guarded against the drift by a series of screens. The thermometers, 
of which there was a good supply, were of such sensibility that, when 
standing at — 40° or — 50°, the mere approach of the observer caused 
a perceptible rise. One of them, a three-feet spirit standard by 
Tagliabue, graduated to — 70°, was of sufficiently extended register 
to be read by rapid inspection to tenths of a degree. " The influence 
of the winds I did not wish absolutely to neutralize ; but I endeavored 
to make the exposure to them so uniform as to give a • relative result 



74 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIOXS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

for every quarter of the compass/' A tide register was on board tlie 
brig. 

The value of the work performed under circumstances of such 
intense cold and suffering w^as appreciated, after tlie return of the 
expedition, b}^ the Smithsonian Institution, the "Catalogue and Index "' 
of whose publications, issued in 1882, gives, on page 33, "Physical 
Observations in the Arctic Seas, by Elisha Kent Kane. Made during 
the Second Grinnell Expedition in searcli of Sir John Franklin, in 
1853, 1854, and 1855, at Van Rensselaer Harbor and other points on the 
West Coast of Greenland. Reduced and discussed by Chas. A. Schott. 
Part I. — Magnetism. II. — Meteorology. HI. — Astronomy. IV. — 
Tides (Xos. 97^-, 104^S 129^"-, 130^"^-)^ 1859-60. 4to, pp. 340, 17 wood- 
cuts, 1 map, 6 plates." 

The Xos. 97, etc., within the parentheses are those of the separate 
publications which make up this volume. Appendixes in the second 
of Kane's volumes of this later expedition, contain the preliminary 
notes from wliicli this Publication has been made. Appendix XVIII. is 
Mr. Durand's examination of plants collected on both expeditions — on 
the second with the assistance of Dr. Hayes. 

The latitude and loiigitude of tlie Astronomical Observatory are 
given. "Lat. 78° 37' X., Long. 70° 40' AV. The island on whieli 
the observatory was placed was some fifty paces long by perhaps forty 
broad. The highest point of the island was about thirty feet above the 
mean tidedevel of the harbor." 

November 7th, darkness came on with insidious steadiness ; the 
thermometer at noonday only could be read without a light ; the black 
masses of the hills, with their glaring patches of snow, were still visible. 
The stars of the sixth magnitude shone out at noonday ; the moon, 
now at her greatest northern declination, swept round the heavens, at 
the lowest part of her curve 14° above the horizon. In the brig, a mean 
temperature was kept at 65° below deck ; above, under the housing, it 
was as high as the freezing point. AVinter was fully upon them. 

The party began to realize, their situation. They found it difficult 
to keep up a cheery tone. Even Hans was sorely homesick "imtil his 



SEVERE EXPERIENCES. — 1854-5. 75 

nostalgia was treated first by a dose of salts, and secondly by promo- 
tion." He had bundled up his clothes and threatened a good-bye, '■' but 
soon became as happy as a fat man ought to be." 

The brig was now made as comfortable as possible ; the deck housed 
in and corked with oakum, and within a system of warmth and ventila- 
tion secured. The arrangements for cooking, ice-melting, and washing- 
were minutely cared for. 

The usual daily Arctic routine was established. At 6 A. m. the decks 
were cleaned, the ice-hole opened, the ice-tables measured, and things 
aboard put to rights. At half past seven all hands washed on deck 
and came below for breakfast, which was alike for all, — hard-tack, 
pcn-k, stewed apples frozen like molasses candy, tea and coffee, with a 
delicate portion of raw potato. After breakfast, smoking till nine ; and 
then each to his occupation until dinner, when the raw potato came in 
again for hygiene. This last morsel was anything but palatable, 
although its good effects on gums threatened with scurvy were often 
pointed out. Six o'clock brought supper, with little variation of the 
diet named, and then the amusements of cards, chess, and the Magazine 
cheered the evening. 

The small force of the company had been reduced by sickness, and 
the deck officers and effective men had enough of ship's duty to occupy 
several hours of each day. Mr. Sontag was assisted at the observatory 
alternately by the Commander, Mr. Bonsall, and Dr. Hayes ; on board 
he had his charts and computations. When the season had fully 
set in, the last-named officer had a hospital on hand, and specimens 
in natural history to prepare, with the meteorological tables, the log- 
book, and other official records to occupy him. There was no idling 
on board during the one hundred and twenty days of the sun's absence. 

The long and dreary winter Avas exceptionally severe, — the ther- 
mometer registering, Januar}^ 17, — 49°, and February 5, — 68"".^ The 
reduced mean of the best spirit standards gave — 67°: chloric ether 
and the oil of winter-green became solid. The influence of the long 
and intense darkness was most depressing, and of the ship's company 
scarcely one was exempt from scurvy. More than fifty dogs died from 
an anomalous form of disease to which the absence of liffht contributed 



76 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

as much as the extreme cold. They ate voraciously, kept their streugth, 
and slept well, but barked frantically at nothing, and walked in straight 
and curved lines with anxious and unwearying perseverance ; generally 
they perished with symptoms resembling lock-jaw, in thirty-six hours 
after the first attack. Their loss interfered seriously with the original 
plan of search ; it had been contemplated to employ them in following 
the coast, but now a new sj^stem must be established, new sledges 
built, and equipments provided suited to larger parties and of a more 
portable character. 

At the opening of spring the party was too small for an extended 
system of operations ; the only hope of continuing the search was to be 
found in a passage through or over the ice-fields to the north. March 17, 
Kane was anxiously waiting to send out his first advance party. The 
thermometer outside stood at — 46°, but from the deck of the "Advance " 
he saw the promise of milder weather. To the northward all the bright 
glare of sunset streamed out in long bands of orange through the vapors 
of the ice-foot, and the frost-smoke exhaled in wreaths like those which 
one sees curling from the house-chimneys as he comes down a mountain 
side into a valley. On the third day following, the dep6t party started 
out. But the heavy gale from the north-northeast overtook them, their 
thermometer fell to — 57°, and when found by a rescue party under 
Kane they Avere at the point of entire exhaustion, having been without 
sleep eighty-one out of eighty-four hours. Two of the men. Baker and 
Schubert, died not long after their return to the brig ; all save one 
suffered with temporarily impaired minds. 

As soon as the health of his company justified it, Kane renewed his 
attempts by three expeditions : in April and May under his own guid- 
ance, in June under Dr. Hayes, and in Jane- July under Morton, 
accompanied by Hans. 

The first of these explorations was along the base of the great glacier 
issuing from the coast of Greenland in Lat. 79°, — a glacier revisited 
and surveyed the year following. But the scurvy painfully reappeared, 
the snow deepened till the men sank to their middle, the dogs were so 
buried that the sleds were unloaded and their cargoes carried, and the 
supplies expected to be found available in the cache of the previous 



Morton's ''open sea." - 77 

fall were found destroyed by the bear. Three of the party were over- 
come by snow-blindness, and Kane himself was carried back to the brig, 
where he lay ill with scurvy and typhoid fever, unable to walk until 
June 9. 

The location of the entire northern coast line was still a blank ; the 
theodolite had made ^for them the discovery that it trended eastward. 
Dr. Hayes renewed an attempt for its exploration. Leaving 'the brig, 
May 20, he pressed on, in company with William Godfrey, on a due 
north line, but, encountering the squeezed ices, soon worked to the 
eastward, following an extremely tortuous course of not more than 
ninet}^ miles in a direct line, but of actual travel two hundred and 
seventy. The whole travel of twelve days was one of not less than 
four hundred miles. The new coast line added by this journey to the 
chart was about two hundred miles in extent. His return from the 
highest point reached, latitude 79° 45^ became a necessity by the giving 
out of the pemmican and by severe snow-blindness and exhaustion. 

Morton's journey, which followed, was a new era in the expedition. 
June 15 he reached the base of the great glacier, after travelling due 
north over a solid area choked with bergs and frozen fields, and on the 
sixth day after, made for what he thought a cape, seeing a vacancy 
between it and the west land. On his reaching the opening he found 
it a channel, its mouth covered with ice. After turning the cape he 
met with a good, smooth ice-foot in the entering curve of a bay, where 
the land soon grew lower, — a long, low country with rolling hills 
opening to the view. The open water was black with dove-kies, the 
tern were numerous, and flying high over head were large, white birds ; 
mollemokes were feeding on the water, and then flying over it well out 
to sea. Never had the birds been seen so numerous. A flock of brent 
geese made a curve out to seaward, and then flew far ahead over the 
plain, showing that their destination was inland. 

Morton walked over the hummocked ice on the shallow bay, and 
saw another opening, not quite eight miles across, separating two 
islands ; the open passages were fifteen miles or more in width. He 
tried in vain to pass entirely round this cape, nor could he ascend the 
Very high cliffs more than a few hundred feet. But at that height he 



< ^ AMERICAN EXPLOIIATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

fastened to his walking-pole the flag which had accompanied Commodore 
AVilkes on the Antarctic Expedition of 1838-42, and DeHaven in the 
first Grinnell Expedition. Looking out upon the great waste of 
waters before him, ^' not a speck of ice could be seen." From a height 
of 480 feet, which commanded a horizon of almost forty miles, his ears 
were gladdened with the novel music of dashing waves; and a surf 
breaking in among the rock's at his feet stayed his further progress. 
This cheering news confirmed at the time all the arguments which Kane 
had revolved in the past, in favor of an open Polar Sea. It was, how- 
ever, the last achievement which the Expedition could secure. For 
the season of Arctic travel had now ended, and the summer was 
wearing on, but the ice did not break up, as was expected; anxious 
thoughts for the coming year were inevitable. It seemed as if a second 
winter must overtake the ship before she could get half-way through 
the pack, even if warping to the South should begin at the earliest 
moment possible. Yet the party were confessedly ill-fitted for another 
Arctic season, having neither health, fuel, nor provisions. On the 
other hand, to abandon the vessel seemed to be inexpedient if not 
impracticable, as it would involve the necessity of carrying sick and 
newly amputated men, — one-half of the company being disabled. 
Kane thought he could not desert the brig while there was a chance 
of saving her. 

An exploring journey of sixty miles confirmed his belief that he 
could not escape in open boats, and he determined to make an effort 
to communicate with Beechey Island, and the English squadron there 
under Sir Edward Belcher. Setting out on the 12th of July, with five 
volunteers, he found the pack solid from Jones' to Murchison's Sounds, 
and the ice still investing the American shore some twenty miles from 
Cape Isabella. After several attempts to bore, and an approach Avithin 
ten miles to Cape Parry, the chances of further success utterly failed. 
No course was left but to return to the brig, and look forward to a 
second winter. In Kane's journal, August 18, he writes : " It is liorrihle 
— yes, that is the word — to look forward to another year of disease 
and darkness to be met without fresh food and without fuel. I should 
meet it with a more tempered sadness if I had no comrades to think 



THE CRISIS, AUGUST, 1854. 79 

for aud protect." lie determined to place on Observatory Island a 
large signal beacon or cairn, bnrying under it documents which, in case 
of disaster to the party, would convey intelligence of their proceedings 
and fate. The beacon was erected on a cliff, upon a broad face of rock 
looking out upon the ic}^ desert. On it were painted, in large letters, 
the words, — 

ADVANCE. 

, A.D. 1853-54. 

A pyramid above this was marked with a cross ; underneath were 
placed the coffins of the two dead seamen. Near by, in a hole in the 
rock, a paper, enclosed in glass, sealed in with melted lead, gave the 
names of the survivors, and the results of the explorations which had 
been made. The party then prepared themselves for the possibility of 
entire destruction. 

Yet some of them, including Petersen, Avho had been out in the 
searching expedition with Captain Penny, now believed that an escape 
to the South was still practicable, and that the safety of all would be 
promoted by withdrawal from the brig. To detach any, Kane thought 
neither right in itself, nor practically safe ; personally, it was a " simple 
duty of honor to remain by the brig " till he had proved the effect of 
the later tides ; and after that it would be too late. But, co{ne what 
might, he would share her fortunes. Yet, while he would not detach 
any, he did not think he had the moral right to detain any through 
a second winter. He made a final inspection of the ice, again deter- 
mined escape to be impossible, and then, calling all hands and explaining 
to them fully their true condition, strenuously advised that they should 
forego the poject of returning South, but added that he would freely give 
permission to any who were desirous to make the attempt. At the call 
of the roll each man answered for himself, and eight out of the seventeen 
survivors resolved to stand by the brig. On the 28th, liberally supplied 
with their portion of the resources, the eight others moved off with 
elastic step, under the leadership of Dr. Hayes, leaving the little number 
left behind to the pressure of the thoughts of the waning efficiency of 



80 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

all, the impending cold, dark night of winter, their poverty of resources, 
and the dreary sense of complete isolation. 

Dr. Hayes, in his "Arctic Boat Journey," published in 1871, presents, 
the following account of their separation, with his reasons for leaving 
the brig: "The ice in the centre of the channel had broken up, and. 
had drifted down into Force Bay. Escape for the brig was hopeless. 
She could not be liberated. Either of two courses was now open to 
us, — to remain by the brig and try in her the chances of a second 
winter, or to seek safety in our boats to the South." 

" That everything possible had been done tow^ards the attainment of 
the objects of the cruise, was not doubted by any officer or man of the 
brig's company ; and certainly the character of the commander might 
itself have been relied upon by them as a sufficient guarantee of the 
hopelessness of future efforts when he had renounced them as fruitless. 
The question was simply when we should set out homeward — whether 
we should pass the winter in the vessel and start for Upernavik in the 
Spring, or make the attempt without further delay. In either case we 
must abandon all thought, either of further exploration, or of preserving 
the brig. The recent observations of Dr. Kane had been such as to 
prevent his detaching even an experimental party to the South, so great 
did the perils of a journey in that direction appear to him. On the 
other hand, so urgent were our necessities, and so difficult of solution 
the problems upon which depended the safety of the persons under him, 
that, although his natural bias as commander inclined him to stay by 
the vessel at whatever cost, yet he rightly considered it unjust, now 
that the cruise was in effect ended, to interpose the weight of his official 
authority to determine the choice of time for our setting out. . . . 

"In addition to the motives which influenced the resolution of others, 
there were some which had peculiar relation to myself as medical offi- 
cer of the brig. To remain in her during the coming winter, and thus 
keep together so large a number of persons as the entire company, in 
quarters so straitened, subjected to the worst causes of disease, without 
the most essential means either of prevention or cure, would, I felt 
assured, convert the brig into a mere hospital, where the most depress- 
ing influences must be engendered. Originally prepared for only a 



THE SEPARATION, AUGUST, 1854. 81 

single winter, we had now completely exhausted our fuel, except seven 
hundred and fifty tons of coal, after the consumption of which we 
must break up the ship ; and our remaining provisions, although ample 
in quantity for the entire company through the winter, consisted 
mainly of salted meat, which, from its effect in producing and aggra- 
vating scurvy, as shown by the last winter's sad experience, threatened 
to be fatal to men in our condition. If one-half the company should 
leave the vessel to try the southw^ard journey there would be a suffi- 
cient number of men in each party to form a complete organization. 
Those remaining with the vessel would have the professional skill of Dr. 
Kane, with augmented means of health and comfort ; and the cause of 
disease would be proportionally diminished. If the travelling party 
should perish by the way, the deaths would probably not be more 
numerous than if all should continue together ; and whatever the fate 
of that party, the persons at the brig would be in improved condition 
in the Spring. 

'' It Avas remembered by all of us that to make a Southward Journey 
in boats to Upernavik, rather than to hazard a second winter in the ice, 
had previously been repeatedly discussed, as among the alternatives 
which awaited us ; and it was a subject long familiar to all of us. If, 
after the completion of the Spring work, the season should be back- 
ward, it had been regarded as one of our recognized means of safety, 
to transport boats and provisions over the ice to open water, and early 
in September to push southward. This was one of the considerations 
which originally influenced Dr. Kane in favor of wintering in Rens- 
selaer Bay. 

"The failure of his late expedition to Beechey Island, and the pros- 
pect of an early winter (for the young ice was making rapidly), led 
him to the conclusion which he announced to his officers, namely,^that 
the pack in the North Water which had baffled him would still remain, 
and would interpose an insurmountable barrier to any attempt to 
escape to the South. This, however, he submitted to our judgments as 
a question upon which each of us was now called to think for himself. 

" On the other hand, it was believed by Mr. Petersen, whose long 
experience of the movements of Arctic ice entitled his opinion to 



82 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

great respect, that this North*^ Water 'pack' had never previously 
been observed ; that it was merely accidental ; and that such was the 
rapidity of ice movements, we had every reason to believe that it 
would entirely disappear within two weeks. Again : if a party should 
succeed :n the attempt to reach Upernavik (the distance to which was 
not greater than that to Beechey Island), they would there pass the 
winter, and being directly in the line of the Baffin Ba,y whalers, 
(which go annually within from one hundred to one hundred and fifty 
miles of Smith Strait), they could give information of the condition of 
the 'Advance,' and b}^ means of either one of those whalers, or of one 
of the small sloops known to be at the Danish settlements, communica- 
tion could be opened to Rensselaer Harbor." 

The narrowed companionship of the company remaining on the brig 
seems to have aroused all their remaining energies in providing for 
their daily necessities, with the cherished hope of better things still in 
store. The months of September, October, and November were filled 
with the occupations of taking care of the ship, and securing for food 
the bear and the walrus ; the numerous Arctic hares fed the few dogs 
which were left. Kane himself found the rats as an article of diet less 
inviting, but also less hurtful to health than the liver of the bear. 
They Avere too numerous to permit anything to be stowed below decks, 
destroying even the men's bedding in the forecastle. 

At one time in this dark period Morton and Hans tracked the 
Eskimos to Etah, bringing back two hundred and seventy pounds of 
walrus-meat and a couple of foxes. A party from that settlement had 
previously made a visit to the brig, committing a number of acts of 
theft ; but the stolen goods had been recovered, the thieves punished, 
and a treaty binding the Innuits that they would not henceforth steal, 
would bring fresh meat, sell or lend their dogs, and show where game 
could be found, was now ratified by the Kab-lu-nahs, with the promise 
that they would not visit the Eskimos with any hurt or mischief, would 
make them welcome aboard ship, trade with them, and make them 
presents. 

December 8, Bonsall and Petersen, two of those who had left the 



DR. HAYES liETUKNS. 83 

brig more than three months before, were brought back on the sledge 
of the Eskimos, and on the 12th Dr. Haj^es also came in. Riley had 
returned five days after leaving. Dr. Hayes' party had journeyed 
three hundred and fifty miles, with the thermometer at — 50°, living 
for more than two months on frozen seal and walrus-meat. The Eski- 
mos who accompanied them on the return had been engaged from 
different settlements on the way, except the volunteers who added 
tliemselves as they neared the brig, till they numbered six drivers and 
forty-two dogs. The whole party of natives took a sound sleep and a 
continuous feed on the "Advance," and passed off through the hum- 
mocks in good spirits, stealthily carrying some knives and forks. 

Within a very few days after leaving the brig the courage of some 
of those under Dr. Hayes had steadily waned, a second man having 
started to return, and a third coming very near to a like decision. 
The remaining eight persons attempted to continue their Southward 
journe}' in two boats ; but before reaching Littleton Island every lead 
was more than once closed, and the boats and cargo dragged over the 
ice. By September 6 seventy-five miles had been made in eleven days, 
and Baffin's Bay opened before them with the delusive promise of a 
more comfortable journey. Giving three lusty cheers for Upernavik, 
the whale-boat and the '' Forlorn," now called the "Good Hope," stood 
away for Cape Alexander, fourteen miles distant. Passing this in a 
dead calm, after a tempestuous time, on the 8th of September they 
were on their way to Northumberland Island, but with a pack around 
them on every side at the mouth of Whale Sound, the ice being more 
firm and secure than it had been expected to be found even in Melville 
Bay. Camping next on the shore of Booth Ba}', the little party were 
visited by some Eskimos from Netlik, and they were compelled to take 
up their abode at first with them, and afterward within reach of them, 
until their return to the "Advance." 

The whole story of their absence has been summed up in the state- 
ment that they were frozen up at a distance of three hundred miles 
from the vessel, and, building at Booth Bay, thirteen miles below Cape 
Parry, an Eskimo hut in the crevice of a rock, for three months they 
lived almost AAdthout fire or light, subsisting upon such small supplies 



84 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of walrus meat as they could procure from natives living fifty miles 
distant. At times this precarious supply utterly failed them. Being 
situated upon the most barren part of this inhospitable coast, they 
were always unfortunate in their hunting excursions, and at one time 
for three weeks had nothing to eat but stone moss, scooped from the 
snow-covered rocks. Fortunately they were spared the horrid alterna- 
tive of eating each other by the timely appearance of the Eskimos, 
but at last were driven by starvation to move back toward their 
vessel, by the aid of the Eskimo dogs and sledges, making the long 
journey by moonlight^ with the thermometer never less than 70°, and 
often 85° below freezing. Reaching Cape Alexander, the entering Cape 
of Smith's Strait, they found an open crack in the ice five miles in 
width, while numerous smaller cracks broke up the ice two miles to the 
south of it; and here, pushing forward at the head of the party. Dr. 
Hayes attempted to leap one of these cracks, but alighting upon a 
piece of ice which he supposed to be solid, was precipitated into the 
water, and though rescued by his companions, was, in spite of his bear 
and seal-skin clothing, wet to the skin. Reaching the open water, 
he found the only chance to pass the Cape Avas on the ice-foot (a mass 
of ice glued up against the rocks) in places not three feet in width. 
This the Eskimos, accustomed as they were to all sorts of peril, refused 
to do until intimidated by Dr. Hayes's pistols. They crawled slowly 
round this shelf of ice, clinging to the crevices of the rocks with their 
naked hands, the water twenty feet vertically below them lashing the 
icy shore, the thermometer 50° below zero, the blasts of wind raging 
like the voices of demons through vast caverns in the rocky wall that 
towered above them, whirling down sheets of crisped snow upon their 
heads ; and, to complete the horror of the scene, the moon having set 
behind the mountains, the water was black as Erebus in the gloomy 
shadows, except when broken by a phosphorescent wave. They had 
to run fifteen miles after passing the Cape to reach the nearest Eskimo 
station, and Dr. Hayes was only kept alive by his driver pounding him 
with his whip-stock. As it was, his body was badly frozen in many 
places. On the brig he was immediately cared for in the kindest man- 
ner. Kane gav^j up to hirii his own bunk. 



ANOTHER SLEDGE TRIP. 85 

The arguments which have been cited had, doubtless, seemed at the 
time not only to justify the departure of this party, but to require it for 
the good of all, and an impartial review of their whole condition seems 
to compel the judgment that the Commander of the "Advance," though 
exhibiting at all times a most conscientious desire for the performance 
of duty to each one intrusted to his care, erred in not taking upon 
himself the responsibility of a return before the close of the summer 
of 1854. The consciousness of an inability to secure provision for 
a second Arctic winter, and the diseased condition of the ship's party, 
might have been much weightier arguments for determining his course 
than was the merest possibility of saving the brig, or even the more 
tempting inducements of making further discoveries. Certainly, that 
which in the outset he had set before him as the prime object of the 
expedition — the rescue of Franklin — had been taken out of his con- 
trol; and it was unfortunately true that he had no second vessel on which 
in an emergency to fall back for supplies, those of the original outfit 
too having been, as will be remembered, very scanty. The history of 
this expedition strikingly confirms the judgment of Secretary Preston 
in his instructions to the two ships of the first expedition to avoid, if 
possible, a second winter in the ice. On the other hand, the sufferings 
and forced return to the ship by the party under Dr. Hayes w^ould seem 
to strengthen Kane's judgment, that if all the rest had accompanied him 
they could not have reached Upernavik before the winter of 1855. 

As the year closed, Kane made one more necessary sled journey in 
the hope of collecting walrus beef, chiefly for McGary and Brooks, who 
seemed rapidly sinking. The only diet for the trip was some meat 
biscuit, with a few rats chopped up and frozen into tallow balls. The dogs 
were fed on their dead brothers, one of them dying in the very act of eat- 
ing ; six of the eight soon became useless. Both Kane and Petersen were 
near losing their lives in a hut of refuge, and as a forced necessity to 
save the dogs and themselves, they returned to the brig on foot, driving 
the dogs before them. Their walk of forty-four miles in sixteen hours, 
" almost scudding before the gale," closed their year 1854. 

The events which filled the remaining time of the expedition, the 



86 AlVIERICAN EXPLOEATFONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

rest of the Winter and the Spnng and Summer months until the relief 
of the party by Captain Hartstene, September 11, 1855, were of the 
most sombre character ; the few reliefs in the dark picture being the 
opportunity of a second visit to the great northern glacier, now closely 
observed by Kane ; the preservation of life under the most unpromising 
conditions ; the heroic fortitude shown by the men under Kane's leading 
example ; and their final rescue. 

January 14, 1855, Kane wrote : " Our sick are about the same. How 
grateful I ought to be that I, the weakling of a jear ago, am well, and 
a helping man. But the present state of things cannot last. The sick 
require meat, and we have but three days' allowance — thin chips of 
raw walrus, not exceeding four ounces in weight for each man per 
diem." He set out to get help from the lower Eskimo settlement, but 
again the dogs failed him, one of the four falling into frightful convul- 
sions. Hans, adventurous and buoyant as he usually was, cried like 
a child, and Kane, sick and worn-out, found his own equanimity at 
fault. A renewed attempt under Petersen met with a like failure. 

A KELIEF SHIP PROVIDED. 

At the homes of the explorers in the United States, when the second 
Winter set in without bringing home the ''Advance" and her crew, 
the most serious alarm for their fate had been felt by their friends. 
The ordinary apprehension of danger in Arctic service was increased 
by the experience of the Winter which had passed, and the deficiencies 
of the outfit for a second season in the ice were remembered. Congress 
was memorialized by the societies which had encouraged the undertak- 
ing, and the general sentiment of the people pressed upon their Repre- 
sentatives for a Relief Expedition in the coming Spring. A Joint 
Resolution of Congress, approved February 3, 1855, authorized the 
Secretary of the Navy " to provide and despatch a suitable naval or other 
steamer, and, if necessary, a tender, to the Arctic Seas for the rescue 
or relief of Passed Assistant Surgeon E. K. Kane, U.S.N., and the 
officers and men under his command." This was followed, March 3, 
by an appropriation of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the 
object named in the Resolution. The bark " Release," of Boston, and 



SURVEY OF THE GREAT GLACIER. 87 

the propeller "Arctic," of Philadelphia, were procured, and especially 
fitted and equipped for the service under the supervision of Lieutenant 
Henry J. Hartstene, to Avhom the command of the expedition was 
assigned. Full rations and extra provisions for two years, with clothing 
adapted to an Arctic climate, were provided, and officers and men 
selected by the Commander were detailed by the Department. 

The Secretary was not acting prematurely, for the same month of 
March had found Kane's party in no improved condition — every man 
on board being tainted with scurAy, and the last remnant of fresh meat 
doled out. It was not until the 15th that a fresh supply was received 
through another visit by Hans to Etah ; it was renewed by a journey 
by Kane himself to this most northern Winter settlement of the 
Eskimos, about seventy miles from the brig. At that time the natives 
had just began to hunt with avidity, after famine and disease had 
reduced them to the lowest state of misery and emaciation. 

The sun had come back, February 21, from a disappearance of one 
hundred and forty days below the rocky shadowing of the brig ; Dr. 
Haj^es, through sickness, had not seen him for five months and two 
weeks. 

With the close of April Kane made his last effort to explore the 
further shores beyond Kennedy Channel. He had but four dogs left 
out of sixty-two, and his Eskimo friends had been obliged by famine 
to kill nearly all their own stock; but Kane succeeded in securing 
their assistance with three sleds, and pressed up high enough to 
survey the great glacier so graphically described in his second volume, 
but could not prevail on the Eskimos to make a further northward 
advance. 

When May came, everything admonished the party that the time 
was at hand when they must leave the brig, and trust the floes. 
Preparations for this had been making for some time past, and the 
crew with the returning season had now gained sufficient health to 
complete them. On the 20th the whole ship's company brought to 
Kane an engagement reciting that they fervently concurred with the 



88 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Commander in his attempt to reach the South by boats ; and that they 
had determined to abide faithfully by the expedition and the sick, and 
advance the objects in view. Their last visit was now made to the brig, 
the flags were hoisted and then hauled down, and a statement affixed 
to a stanchion near the gangway, showing the necessity for abandoning 
the ship, to remain longer upon which could in no manner advance the 
search for Franklin, but only prove destructive to men who had already 
suffered from the severe climate and disease. Her upper spars, bulwarks, 
deck sheathing, bulkheads, and other parts had already been consumed 
for fuel. She lay upon ice nine feet in thickness. The party had two 
whale-boats, each twenty-four feet in length, and a light cedar dingy 
of thirteen feet ; these were mounted on runners eighteen feet long, 
shod with hoop-iron, and lashed together so as to form a pliable sledge. 
The sick and the reserve of provisions were transported on a sledge by 
a team of dogs, Kane himself performing this office. The month closed 
with these occupations. 

On the very last day. May, 1855, "by a coincidence which cost some 
effort to bring it about," precisely two years after the sailing of the 
party from New York, Lieutenant Hartstene's Relief Expedition of forty 
officers and men sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, pressing north- 
ward for the relief, while the disabled party were forcing their suffering 
way South. 

By the middle of June all of Kane's disabled men, and some twelve 
hundred pounds of stores, had been transported, by journeys of in all 
1,100 miles, to Annatoah, their first sick station. The U. S. Coast* 
survey theodolite, the apparatus furnished by the American Philo- 
sophical Society, and the valuable library were left behind ; the docU' 
ments of the Expedition were carried forward. June 12, when the 
boats and sledges had come to a halt in the narrow passage between 
the islands opposite Cape Misery, a message from Dr. Hayes reached 
Kane in the "Advance" boat, informing him that Christien Ohlsen 
had died. The body of this tried and courageous man, sewed up in 
his own blankets, was carried in procession to the head of a little 
gorge on the east face of Pekiutlik, and by hard labor consigned to a 



KANE AND HAKTSTENE AT GODHAYN. 89 

sort of trench, and covered with rocks for protection from the fox and 
the bear. A small tablet of lead, on which were inscribed — 

CHRISTIEN OIILSEN. 

Aged 36 years. 

was laid on his breast. The Cape of Littleton Islands that looks down 
on him bears his name. 

The Eskimos of Etah faithfully assisted the party throughout the 
whole of this heavy transport over the ice up to the margin of the floe, 
on reaching which the boats were transported over eighty-one miles of 
unbroken ice ; the party had walked three hundred and sixteen miles 
in thirty-one days. From that point the next ten miles was run in one 
day under sail, when they were again forced to make alternate move- 
ments over ice and water. They had perpetual daylight, but halted 
regularljT at bedtime and for imeals. On the lower part of the journey 
toward Cape York, which they reached on the 21st of July, they found 
the birds in abundance, and they succeeded in drying on the rocks for 
the transit of Melville Bay two thousand pounds of the Lumme. After 
building at the Cape a beacon cairn, and depositing the records of the 
Expedition, the crossing of Melville Bay was effected with renewed suffer- 
ing, the party being consolidated into two boats ; — the third was needed 
for fuel. August 6, on the eighty-third day after leaving the " Advance," 
they arrived at Upernavik, and were welcomed with characteristic hos- 
pitality. Passage was immediately taken in the Danish brig " Mariane," 
its Commander engaging to land them at the Shetland Islands; but 
touching a few days at Godhavn on the 11th, when they were on 
the eve of setting out for Europe, the lookout man at the hill-top 
announced a steamer, and when it drew near, the Stars and Stripes were 
recognized, the boat " Faith " was lowered, with the little flag that had 
visited both hemispheres opened to the breeze; and as Kane's^ party 
came alongside of the " Release," " Captain Hartstene hailed a little 
man in a ragged flannel shirt, ' Is that Dr. Kane ? ' and with the ' Yes,' 
that followed, the rigging was manned and cheers welcomed them back 
to the social world of love." 

October 11, 1855, Capt. Hartstene reported to the Secretary of 













ililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiliiiiiliiliiilliiliiiiiiiiiiiliiiii^^^^^ 



hartstene's ijeport. 91 

the Navy, from New York, the arrival of the fifteen survivors of the 
Expedition on board the two Relief vessels; stating in his brief letter 
that they had been received on board at Lievely, after making their 
way down the coast in boats and sledges by unprecedented energy and 
determination. The "Release" and the "Arctic" had both proved 
themselves all that could be desired, particularly the "Arctic," which 
had, in addition to her steam motive-power., the qualities of a good, 
weatherly, moderate-sailing vessel. They had been severely nipped 
and chafed by the ice, but were generally in good condition. 

The Commanding Officer had sailed '•^untrammelled hy any strin- 
gent instructions " from Secretary Dobbin.* He had experienced a 
boisterous outward passage of twenty-seven days to Disco, with indi- 
cations there of such a state of the icy region before them that " in 
order to avoid further risk of human life in a search so exceedingly 
hazardous," he had there suggested to the Department, "the impro- 
priety of making any efforts to relieve them if they should not return, 
— 'he felt confident of the ability of his officers to accomplish their own 
release." 

On the passage to UpernaA'ik he had met with two Scotch whalers 
from Aberdeen, latitude 69"" 39', longitude 63° 30', and at once hoped for 
news of Dr. Kane's party from them, but was disappointed. He had 
the opportunity of putting on board a despatch for the Department, 
with letters. The whalers said that Melville Bay was so packed with 

* Naval Kecoed of the Officers of the Relief Ships, — Henry J. Hartstene 
entered the Xaval Service as Midshipman April 1, 1828; promoted to be Lieutenant, Feb- 
i-uary 23, 1840; to he Commander, September 14, 1855; died, 1872. Charles C. Simms, 
commanding the " Arctic," entered the service as Midshipman, October 9, 1839; promoted 
to be Passed Midsliipman, July 15, 1845; to be a Master, January 15, 1854; to be Lieuten- 
ant, August 12, 1854. Acting Master W. S. Lovell entered the service J^ovember 8, 1847; 
promoted to be Passed Midshipman, June, 1853 ; to be a Master, September 15, 1855 ; to 
be a Lieutenant, September 16, 1855; resigned. May 3, 1859. Watson Smith, Acting Mas- 
ter, entered the service October 19, 1841 ; promoted to be Passed Midshipman, August 10, 
1847; to be Lieutenant, September 15, 1855. J. P. FyfEe entered the service September 9, 
1847; promoted to be a Master, September 15, 1855; to be a Lieutenant, September 16, 
1855; to be Lieutenant-Commander, July 16, 1862; to be a Commander, December 7, 1867; 
to be Captain, January 13, 1879. Harman Newell entered the service September 22, 1849; 
promoted to Second Assistant-Engineer, February 26, 1851; to be First Assistant, May 21, 
1853. 



92 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

ice that all fishing ships had turned back in despair, and that to 
attempt its passage would be to confront danger to no purpose. Hart- 
stene and Simms pressed forward. After mooring to bergs for some 
days near Wedge Island, the ice without any apparent cause, except 
the remarkable mysterious currents, disappeared, leaving them to steam 
uninterruptedly into the closely-packed floe of Melville Bay. In 
twenty-eight days more they had crossed it, and were in the North 
Water. 

In an article written for " Putnam's Magazine " for May, 1856, Dr. 
J. P. Kane, Acting Assistant-Surgeon of the "Advance," when de- 
scribing this crossing, says : '' The navigation of Melville Bay is after 
its own kind and no other. Sometimes the nips would squeeze us like 
a shellbark between a pair of nut-crackers ; sometimes all hands were 
out on the ice, towing like horses of a canal-boat ; sometimes we would 
make a hard mile a day by planting anchors in the ice ahead, and dragging 
ourselves up to them by the capstan, — all hands at work, from the cap- 
tain to the ship's cook. At other times we would get up steam, and, ex- 
cept that we might have to butt our way through one or two projecting 
tongues of ice, we would have an uninterrupted run for twenty or thirty 
miles on a stretch. All this time Captain Hartstene kept the deck with 
untiring energy, conning the ships, and selecting the most favorable leads 
himself. His arm was in a sling, as he had received a severe injury in 
getting out coal in the Waigat, where, as usual with him, he was bent 
upon proving he could do more hard work than any two other men. At 
last he fell down the companion-ladder and sprained his ankle, and some 
of his junior officers thought that now, at least, they would have a 
chance to show their skill in conning. But they reckoned without 
their host. To the surprise of everybody he limped on deck, ordered 
a rope to be tied round his body, and by the aid of a couple of sailors 
was hoisted to the masthead, from which point he gave his orders as if 
nothing had happened. Perched up in a sort of tub, called the crow's- 
nest, with a bowl of soup sent up to him to keep body and soul 
together, there he staid for thirty-six hours on a stretch, with the ther- 
mometer below the freezing point, rather than risk the torture of a 
second hoisting." 



hartstene's cairns. 93 

Again disappointed by finding no traces whatever of men at Cape 
Alexander, or at Sutherland Island near by, Hartstene left upon it 
the following records, which, at the later date of August 3, 1876, 
Captain Allan Young, on his second voyage of the " Pandora," 
found in a pulpy state within a demolished cairn. They were still 
decipherable, and Captain Young forwarded them to the United States 
State Department: — 

" Cape Alexander, August 16, 1855. 
" The United States brig ' Arctic ' departed from her consort, the 
'Release,' on the morning of the 15th iiist., off Wolstenholme Island, 
arrived here this day, and having made unsuccessful search for traces 
of Dr. Kane or Sir John Franklin and their associates, proceeded 
immediately on to Cape Hatherton for the same purpose. 

" H. J. Hartstene, 
'''' Lieutenant- Commanding U. S. Arctic Expedition. 

'' Returned here from Cape Hatherton August 18, having received 

information from Eskimos. Dr. Kane had lost his vessel, and gone in 

his boats. I am going to Beechey Island. 

" Hartstene." 

" August 19, 1855. 
" I have returned from Cape Hatherton, and on my way to lejoin 
you. If I miss you, remain off Cape Alexander till I return. 

'' Hartstene." 

" United States Brig ' Arctic,' 

Cape Alexander, August 16, 1855. 
"Sir, — Finding no traces of the missing ones, I shall proceed imme- 
diately to Cape Hatherton, in continuance of the search, where you 
will join us. . . . You will re-enter the record of our touching here, 
together with another from yourself to the same effect, all your records 
to be within seventy-two feet north by compass, on a cairn erected on 
the most conspicuous and accessible point. Respectfully, 

"H. L. Hartstene, 
'•^ Lieutenant- Commanding Arctic Expedition. 
" Lieut.-Coin. Charles C. Simms, U. S. bark 'Release.' " 



94 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Passing further northward, he discovered the first signs of the 
missing party at Pelham Point. These signs, however, were few and 
nnimportant, proving only Kane's visit at this place in 1853. Deter- 
mining to push on as far north as possible, the Commander ronnded 
this point, lat. 78° 32' ; but was then opposed by a solid hummocky 
held of ice, without visible limit and interspersed with bergs, all drifting 
southward. He dropped with this drift under sail, examining Cape 
Hatherton and Littleton Island, and finally taking refuge under a 
projecting point fifteen miles northwest of Cape Alexander. Here he 
was first hailed by human voices. Conducted by two Eskimos who 
had come ashore, the party who landed paced along the borders of a 
finely sheltered bay some three miles, over an endless carpet of gay 
poppies and other wild flowers, which formed patterns upon the soft 
and pale green grass, and came upon the Eskimo settlement at Etah, 
— seven small summer tents covered with canvas, but black with 
crusted grease and dirt. The thirty inhabitants w^ere already assembled 
on a green mound in front of the village to greet Hartstene, Lovell, and 
Dr. Kane's brother, all of them crying wdth one word, hullo I hullo ! 
and then with a measured accent, " Docto Kayen ! Docto Kayen ! " 
A close examination of the most intelligent, aided by an Eskimo 
vocabulary, brought out the repeated declarations that the ice had 
crushed Kane's vessel, and he had gone south with sledges and boats. 
May-ouk, the Eskimo examined, swayed his body backward and for- 
ward, drew the figures of Kane's boats, squatted down, imitating the 
gestures and viice of a dog-driver, and agreed with all the others in 
the number oi thr arty Avhich had gone south. 

The relief ships leaving Etah, stood over to Lancaster Sound with 
the design of reaching Beechey Island. But again the ice debarred 
their course, preventing the Commander from executing the com- 
mission of erecting on the island the monumental tablet sent out by 
Lady Franklin. Having made the whole circuit of the Northern part 
of Baffin's Bay, except the deep indentation between Capes Comber- 
mere and Isabella, and having fruitlessly examined Possession and 
Pond's Ba}', Hartstene returned south to Upernavik and Disco, at the 
latter place receiving, as has been related, the missing explorers. 



REPORT' TO SECRETARY DOBBIN. 95 

REPORTED RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 

Ill Kane's final Report to the Secretary of the Navy, he summarizes 
the Avork of this Expedition by saying : " Greenh\ncl reaches its furthest 
Avestern point at Cape Alexander, in the neighborhood of latitude 
78° 10' X., and, after passing longitude 70° W. of Greenwich, trends 
nearly due east and west (E. 20° N.). This northern face of Greenland 
is broken by two large bays, at the base of which are numerous grani- 
toid islands, which, as you approach Ion. 65° W., assume the form of 
an archipelagc. Fifteen islands were surveyed and located here. The 
aspect of the coast is imposing, abutting upon the water-line in head- 
lands from eight hundred to fourteen hundred feet high, and one range 
of precipice presenting an unbroken wall of forty-five miles in length. 
Its geological structure is of the older red sandstones and Silurian 
limestones, overlying a primary basis of massive syenites. The sand- 
stones to the south of 78° seem to form the floor of the bay. They 
are in series, with intercalated greenstones and othe rejected plutonic 
rocks, and form the chief girders of the coast. 

" The further progress of our parties toward the Atlantic was ar- 
rested by a great glacier, which issued in lat. 79° 12' X., Ion. 61° 20' W., 
and ran directly north. This forms an insuperable barrier to explora- 
tion in this district ; it is continuous with the mer de glace of interior 
Greenland, and is the largest true glacier known to exist. Its great 
mass adapts itself to the configuration of the basis-country, which it 
overlies. Its escarpment abutting upon the water presents a perpen- 
dicular face, varying from three to five hundred feet in height. 

'' The lines of crevasse and fracture are on an unexampled scale of 
interest. The bergs, which are ejected in lines, arrange themselves in a 
sort of escalade, wdiich confers a character of great sublimity upon the 
landscape. ' 

"It was followed along its base, and traced into a new and northern 
land, trending far to the west. This land I have named Washington. 
The lai'ge bay which separates it from the coast of Greenland and the 
glacier I have described bears on my chart the name of our liberal 
counliymaii, Mr. Peabodv. 



96 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

" The coasts of this new teriitoiy, adjoining Peabody Bay, have been 
accurately delineated by two parties, whose results correspond. Its 
southwestern cape is in lat. 80° 20' N., by observation with artificial 
horizon ; its longitude, by chronometer and bearings, 66° 42' W. of 
Greenwich. The cape was doubled by William Morton and our 
Eskimos, with a team of dogs, and the land to the North traced until 
they reached the large indentation named Constitution Bay. The 
whole of this line was washed by open water, extending in an iceless 
channel to the opposite shores on the west. This western land I have 
inscribed with the name of Henry Grinnell." 

" The course of this channel at its southern opening, was traced by 
actual survey in a long horse-shoe curve, sharply defined against the 
solid ice of Smith's Sound, and terminating at its extremes against two 
noble headlands about forty miles apart. The western coast was fol- 
lowed in subsequent explorations to a mural face of nine hundred feet 
elevation, preserving throughout its iceless character. Here a heavy 
surf, beating directly against the rocks, checked our future progress. 

"The precipitous headland, the furthest point attained by the party, 
was named Cape Independence. It is in lat. 81° 22', long. 6^° 35' W. 
It was only touched by William Morton, who left the dogs and made 
his way to it along the coast. From it the western coast was seen 
stretching far toward the north, with an iceless horizon, and a heavy 
swell rolling in with white caps. At a height of about five hundred 
feet above the sea this great expanse still presented all the appearance 
of an open and iceless sea. 

" It was approached by a channel entirely free from ice, having a 
length of fifty-two, and a mean width of thirty-six geographical miles. 

"The coast ice along the water-line of this channel has been com- 
pletely destroyed by thaw and water action ; while an unbroken belt 
of solid ice, one hundred and twenty-five miles in diameter, extended 
to the south. A gale from the northeast, of fifty-four hours' duration, 
brought a heavy sea from that quarter, without disclosing any drift to 
other ice. Dark nimbus clouds and water-sky invested the north- 
western horizon, and crowds of migratory birds were observed throng- 
ing its waters." 



KANE ON THE " OPEN POLAR SEA." 97 

"To the northeast the coasts become mountainous, rising in trun- 
cated cones, like the Magdalena Cliffs of Spitzbergen. The furthest 
distinctly-sighted point was a lofty mountain, bearing N. 5° E. (solar) ; 
its latitude, by estimate and intersection, was E. 2° 30'. Its longitude, 
as thus determined, would give QQ° W. (approximative)." 

" The extension of the American coast to the southwest was the 
work of Dr. Hayes and William Godfrey, renewed and confirmed by 
myself in April of the present year ; it completes the survey of the 
coast as far as the Cape Sabine of Captain Inglefield. The land is very 
lofty, sometimes rising at its culminating peaks to the height of two 
thousand five hundred feet. The travel along the western and north- 
western coast was made for the most part upon the ice-foot. One 
large bay, in lat. 79° 40' N., Ion. 73° W., by estimate, extended forty 
miles into the interior, and was terminated by a glacier. A large 
island occupies the southwestern curve of that bay." 

"The operations of the Expedition comprehended the survey and 
delineation of the north coast of Greenland to its termination by a great 
glacier ; the survey of this glacial mass, and its extension northward 
into the new land named Washington ; the discovery of a large chan- 
nel to the northwest, free from ice, and leading into an open and 
expanding area equally free, the whole embracing an iceless area of 
four thousand two hundred miles ; the discovery and delineation of a 
large tract of land forming the extension northward of the American 
continent, and the completed survey of the American coast to the 
south and west as far as Cape Sabine : thus connects our survey with 
the last-determined position of Captain Inglefield, and completing the 
circuits of the straits and bay heretofore known at their southernmost 
opening as Smith's Sound." 

As regards this " open and expanding iceless area," here based by 
Kane on Morton's report, ajid so often since his day spoken of as the 
Open Polar Sea, it is but just to quote Kane's impartial judgment : — 

" Beyond Cape Constitution all is surmise. The high ridges to the 
northwest dwindled off into low, blue knobs, wdiich blended finely with 
the air. . . . 

"An open sea near the Pole, or even an open Polar basin, has been 



98 AMEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

a topic of theory for a long time, and has been shadowed forth to some 
extent by actual or supposed discoveries. As far back as the days of 
Barentz, in 1596, without referring to the earlier or more uncertain 
chronicles, water was seen to the eastward of the northernmost cape of 
Novaia Zemlia; and until its limited extent was defined by direct 
observation, it was assumed to be the sea itself. The Dutch fishermen 
above and around Spitzbergen pushed their adventurous cruises through 
the ice into open spaces, varying in size and form with the season and 
the winds ; and Dr. Scoresby, a venerated authority, alludes to such 
vacancies in the floe, as pointing in argument to a freedom of move- 
ment from the north, inducing open water in the neighborhood of the 
Pole. Baron Wrangell, when forty miles from the coast of Arctic 
Asia, saw, as he thought, a vast ' illimitable ocean,' forgetting for the 
moment how narrow are the limits of human vision on a sphere. So, 
still more recently. Captain Penny proclaimed a sea in Wellington 
Sound, on the very spot where Sir Edward Belcher has since left his 
frozen ships; and my predecessor, Captain Inglefield, from the mast- 
head of his little vessel, announced an ' open Polar basin,' but fifteen 
miles off from the ice which arrested our progress the next year. 

" All these illusory discoveries were no doubt chronicled with per- 
fect integrity ; and it may seem to others, as, since I have left the field, 
it sometimes does to myself, that my own, though on a larger scale, 
may one day pass within the same category.''^ 

PREPARATION OF HIS BOOK. 

On Kane's return he wrote to his old friend, Hon. J. P. Kennedy: 
" My health is almost absurd ; I have grown like a walrus." He set him- 
self immediately on the laborious task of preparing the Narrative of 
the Expedition; but the change from an active life to unremitted 
sedentary pursuits soon told upon his health. To carry through in six 
months nine hundred pages of book-matter, supervising also three 
hundred engravings made from his own sketches, and all this com- 
plicated by incessant demands on his time and toil by crowds of letters, 
was, in his own language, " no fun." In September he wrote to Mr. 
Childs, his publisher, " the book, poor as it is, has been my coffin." The 



KANE's AliCTrC SKETCHES. 99 

sales of the first year of these volumes reached the number of sixty-five 
thousand copies, realizing the sum of sixty-five thousand dollars copy- 
right to the author. A brief but able review of the work, written in 
advance by Mr. Charles Lanman, of Washington, gave a large impetus 
for the demand; thirty thousand persons entered their subscriptions 
before the publication of the volumes. The success of their issue has 
not surprised those who have shared in the wide interest of Arctic 
Exploration, nor even the general reader outside of this circle. For 
the volumes contain not a single page devoid of historical or scientific 
interest, and, although presenting the form of a journal, are unusually 
relieved from the rigid detail of an itinerary. With the transparency 
of truthfulness throughout notes of explorations of such value, the 
explorer and writer, by his very constitutional peculiarity, embodied his 
descriptions in poetic prose, his pen sketching incidents of the day, as 
his pencil did the lights and shades of scenery forming illustrations of 
the volumes. Of these sketches one of his company, Mr. H. Goodfellow, 
says : " They were nearly all made on the spot, the more elaborate of 
them finished in the cabin. It is difficult to conceive that the picture 
of Sylvia headland is not engraved from a photograph ; and the por- 
traits of the Eskimos equally excellent." Hamilton, whose artistic skill 
largely increased their interest, in a letter to Dr. Elder, Kane's biogra- 
pher, comments specially on " the icebergs near Kosoak," " the great 
glacier of Humboldt," "Weary Men's Rest," "Beechey Island," and the 
'^ Three Brother Turrets," and "Tennyson's monument"; saying gener- 
ally of all, that whether executed with every appliance or with half- 
thawed ink and greasy . paper, or paste-board accidentally picked up 
among the rubbish of the ship's store-room, they alike present the faith- 
ful record of the most essential features of the subject. The original 
sketch of Tennyson's monument is of the slightest description, and in 
lead pencil. 

" Hamilton adds, ' Now, every one accustomed to study nature practi- 
cally is aware of the extreme difficulty of rendering the peculiar texture 
and tone of old, time-worn, weather-beaten rock, sandstone, crushed 
debris,' etc. Its successful rendition is one of the most difficult achieve- 
ments of landscape art. In the sketch of the subject alluded to, these 



100 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

qualities (notwithstanding the coldness and sickness suffered at the time 
of executing it, mentioned by the lamented navigator in his journal) are 
secured to an extent that would be creditable to the most skilful artist ; 
every fragment is jotted down with a perception and feeling which seize 
the special character of the minutest particle defined, and yet its minu- 
tiae in no way conflicting with the grandeur of the subject." 

The power of graphic description in the writer himself, already 
referred to in the notice of the first Expedition, is yet more marked 
in the two later volumes. The extracts here given are descriptive, 
— the first of a perilous passage through the floe, the second of the 
great glacier of Greenland : — 

"August 20, 1853, it blew a hurricane. We had seen it coming, and 
were ready with three good hawsers out ahead and all things snug 
aboard. Still it came on lieavier and heavier, and the ice began to 
drive more wildly than I thought I had ever seen it before. I had just 
turned in to warm and dry myself during a momentary lull, when I 
heard the sharp twanging snap of a cord : our six-inch hawser had 
parted, and we were swinging by the two others, the gale roaring like 
a lion. Half a minute more, and twang, twang, came a second report ; 
I knew it was the whale-line by the shrillness of the ring. Our noble 
ten-inch manilla still held on, and the crew were loud in its praises. 
We could hear its deep seolian chant swelling through all the rattle of 
the running-gear and moaning of the shrouds. It was the deaths 
song. The strands gave way with the noise of a shotted gun ; and 
in the smoke that followed their recoil we were dragged out by the 
wild ice at its mercy. . . . 

"At seven in the morning we were close upon the piling masses. 
We dropped our heaviest anchor with the desperate hope of winding 
the brig , but there was no withstanding the ice torrent that followed. 
We had only time to fasten a spar as a buoy to the chain and let her 
slip. So went our best bower. 

"Down we went upon the gale again, helplessly scraping along a 
lee of ice seldom less than thirty feet thick. One floe measured by a 
line, as we tried to fasten it, more tlian forty. One upturned mass 



i 



KANE DESCIIIBING A STORM. 101 

rose above our gunwale, smashing in our bulwarks, and depositing 
half a ton of ice in a lump on deck. But a new enemy came in sight. 
Directly in our way, just bej^ond the line of floe-ice against which we 
were alternately sliding and thumping, was a group of icebergs. We 
had no power to avoid them; and the only question was, whether 
we were to be dashed in pieces, or whether they might not offer some 
providential nook of refuge from the storm. . . . 

"A broad scone piece, or low water-washed berg, came driving up 
from the southward. The thought flashed upon me of one of our es- 
capes in Melville B-dy ; and, as the scones moved rapidly close along- 
side, McGary managed to plant an anchor on its slope and hold on to 
it by a whale-line. It was an anxious moment. Our noble tow-horse, 
whiter than the pale horse which seemed to be pursuing us, hauled us 
bravely on, the spray dashing over his windward flanks, and his fore- 
head ploughing up the lesser ice as if in scorn. Never did heart-feeling 
men acknowledge with more gratitude their merciful deliverance from 
wretched death. . . . The day had its full trials, but more were to come. 
A flaw drove us our shelter, and the gale soon carried us beyond the. 
end of the lead. We were again in the ice. Our jib-boom was snapped 
off in the cap; we carried away our barricade and stanchions, and 
were forced to leave our little ' Eric,' Avith three brave fellows, out 
upon the floes behind us. . . . 

''A little pool of water at length received us. It was just beyond 
a lofty cape that rose up like a wall, and under an iceberg that anchored 
itself between us and the gale. And here, close under the frowning 
shore of Greenland, ten miles nearer the Pole than our holding-ground 
of the morning, the men turned in to rest. . . . 

" As our brig, borne on by the ice, commenced the ascent of the berg, 
the suspense was oppressive. The immense blocks piled against^ her, 
range upon range, pressing themselves under her keel, and throwing 
her upon her side, till, urged by the successive accumulations, she rose 
slowly and as if with convulsive efforts along the sloping wall. Shock 
after shock, jarring her to the very centre, she continued to mount 
steadily on her precarious cradle. But for the groaning of her timbers 
you might have heard a pin drop. And then as she settled down into 



102 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

her old position, quietly taking her place among the broken rubbish, 
there was a deep breathing silence, as though all were waiting for 
some signal before the clamor of congratulation could burst forth." 

THE GREAT GLACIER. 

The great glacier of North Greenland, approached by McGary and 
Bonsall in 1853, was visited and surveyed by Dr. Kane in April of the 
year following. . . . "My recollections of this glacier are very distinct. 
The day was beautifully clear, and I have a number of sketches made 
as we di'ove along in view of its magnificent face. I will not attempt 
to do better by florid description. Men only raphsodize about Niagara 
and the ocean. M}^ notes speak only of the long and ever-shining 
cliff, diminished to a well-pointe d wedge in the perspective ; and again, 
' of the face of glistening ice, sweeping in a long curve from the low 
interior, the facets in front intensely illuminated by the sun.' But tliis 
line of cliff rose in solid glassy wall three hundred feet above the 
water level, with an unknown unfathomable depth beneath it ; and 
its curved face, sixty miles in length, from Cape Agassiz to Cape 
Forbes, vanished into unknown space at not more than a single day's 
railroad travel from the Pole. The interior which commands, and 
from which it issues, was to the eye unsurveyed mer de glace^ — an 
ice ocean to the eye of boundless dimensions." 

" It was in full sight, — the might}' crystal bridge which connects 
the two continents of America and Greenland. I say continents ; for 
Greenland, however insulated it may prove to be, is in mass strictly 
continuous. Its least possible axis, measured from the line of this 
glacier in the neighborhood of the 80th parallel, gives a length of more 
than twelve hundred miles, not materially less than that of Australia 
from its northern to its southern cape. Imagine now the centre of 
such a continent, occupied throughout nearly its whole extent by a 
deep, unbroken sea of ice, that gathers perennial increase from the 
water-shed of vast snow-covered mountains, and all the precipitations 
of the atmosphere upon its own surface. Imagine this, moving onward 
like a great glacial river, seeking outlets at every fiord and valley, 
rolling icy cataracts into the Atlantic and Greenland seas, and having 



THE EXPLORATION COMMENDED TO CONGRESS. 103 

at last reached the northern limit of land that bore it up, pouring out 
a mighty torrent into unknown Arctic space. It is thus, and only thus, 
that we must form a just conception of a phenomenon like this great 
glacier. I had looked for such an appearance, should I ever be fortu- 
nate enough to reach the northern coast of Greenland, but now that it 
was before me, I could hardly realize it. I had recognized in my quiet 
library at home the beautiful analogies which Forbes and Studer have 
developed between the glacier and the river ; but I could not at first 
comprehend this complete substitution of ic9 for water. It was slowly 
that the conviction dawned on me that I was looking upon the counter- 
part of the great river system of Arctic Asia and America. Yet here 
were no water-feeders from the south. Every particle of moisture had 
its origin within the polar circle, and had been converted into ice. 
There were no vast allusions, no forest or animal traces borne down by 
liquid torrents. Here was a plastic, moving, semi-solid mass, obliter- 
ating life, swallowing rocks and islands, and ploughing its way with 
irresistible march through the crust of an investing sea." 

The publication of Kane's preliminary Report had sufficed for the 
creation of an immediate and widespread interest in the work which had 
been accomplished. The Secretary of the Navy commended the results 
of the explorations as worthy of the attention and patronage of Con- 
gress, and spoke of the cruise as an advance in the frozen regions far 
beyond those of Kane's intrepid predecessors; adding: "His residence 
for two years with his little party far beyond the confines of civiliza- 
tion, with a small bark for his home, fastened with icy fetters that 
defied all efforts for emancipation, his sufferings from intense cold, and 
agony from dreadful apprehensions of starvation and death for that 
space of time, — his miraculous and successful journey in open sledges 
over the ice for eighty-four days, — not merely excite our wonder, but 
borrow a moral grandeur from the truly benevolent considerations 
which animated and nerved him for the task." 

Immediately following the annual Report from which this language 
is cited, a correspondence had ensued between the English Ambassador, 
Mr. Crampton, and the State Department, in which Mr. Crampton 



104 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

offered for her Majesty's Government its cordial congratulations for 
Kane's safe return, with the assurances of the sincere gratitude of the 
Government and the nation to him and to Mr. Grinnell for their gene- 
rous exertions and their liberality, and the best thanks to the Govern- 
ment of the United States for affording aid to the Expedition in search 
of Sir John Franklin. The further statement of Mr. Crampton, that 
her Majesty's Government felt desirous to present some acknowledg- 
ment to Dr. Kane and Mr. Grinnell for their generous exertions, 
resulted in an Act of Congress permitting the reception of such tokens 
as her Majesty's Government might see fit to present to Dr. Kane and 
the officers who served with him in that Expedition. The Queen's 
Medal, commemorative of their services, was accordingly struck for the 
officers and men of the "Advance." To Mr. Grinnell a large and costly 
Silver Vase was presented, "as a token of the sincere gratitude and 
esteem of the British Government for his exertions and munificence." * 
The Resolution of Congress, of a later date, authorizing the Secretary of 
the Navy to cause to be struck and presented to the officers and men 
such medals as should express " the high estimate in which Congress 
holds their respective merits and services," was unhappily accom- 
panied by no appropriation to carry it into effect. The Legislatures 
of Pennyslvania, New Jersey, and Maryland unanimously voted hand- 
some acknowledgments, in the form of Resolutions communicated to 
Congress, the Executive, the officers, and the patrons of the Expedition. 
In the Journal of the Royal Geograpjiical Society, for the year 1856, 
and in the Bulletins of the Societe de Geographic of 1858, will be found 

* At tlie United States Centennial held at Philadelphia, 1876, to the writer was 
assigned, by the late Admiral Davis, the pleasing duty of placing for the Unitjed States 
Naval Observatory an exhibit of American Arctic Exploration, In the Kane section of 
this, among a number of other mementoes of the several Expeditions, were placed Dr. 
Kane's sextant, rifle, furs, and kyak ; copies of the volumes of the two Expeditions, 
with the original sketches finished by Hamilton, loaned by Mr. R. M. Grinnell; the 
boat " Faith," repaired at the cost of Mr. G. W. Childs; — and photographs of the medals 
awarded, and of the vase presented to Mr. Henry Grinnell by the British Government. 
Mr. Amos Bonsall, one of the survivors of the Second Expedition, loaned his medal 
received from the Queen, and Mr. Patterson, the handsome marble bust of Dr. Kane. 
The opportunity of the exhibit was secured by the kindness of these and other relatives 
of the explorer, among whom were Mr. R. P. and General and Mrs. T. P. Kane, and Mr. 
F. J. Dreer and Mr. H. J. Taylor. 



DECLINING HEALTH. 



105 



the Awards of their highest medals. The medal of the London Society 
was received for Kane from Admiral Beechey, R.N., by United States 
Minister Dallas; that of the Paris Society was transmitted to Dr. 
Kane's relatives after his death. 




Shortly after the issue of Kane's volumes from the press, Lady 
Franklin, in a renewed correspondence, intimated her wish that he 
equip another expedition, of which, by consent of the Admiralty, he 
was to take command ; but, by the advice of Mr. Kennedy and other 
friends, he reluctantly declined the honor, saying of his mother's desire 
that he should abandon it, " Other persuasion I can resist, but this 
settles the question." In the weary search for health he sailed for 
England, where he received much kind attention, but almost immedi- 
ately found his strength plainly on the decline. November 17, he 
returned to America by way of Havana, at which city he breathed 
his last, February 10, 1857. 

Perhaps no citizen acting as Dr. Kane had acted, chiefly in the 
private capacity of an explorer and traveller, has received greater 
tributes of respect during his life or at death. At Havana his 
remains, followed by more than eight hundred of the military and 



106 AJNIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

citizens, were received by the Governor of the city and his suite, and 
escorted to their embarkation for New Orleans, and at that city, Louis- 
ville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Baltimore, and Philadelphia full honors 
were rendered by very large military and civic processions. In the 
last-named city the remains lay in state in Independence Hall until 
the final obsequies at the Second Presbyterian Church of which his 
parents were members, and in which he had been baptized. Among 
the pall-bearers were his life-long friend, Mr. Grinnell; Mr. Pea- 
body, also invited to this duty, unhappily had not received his in- 
vitation. 

Dr. Kane's religious belief was not only decided, but frequently 
expressed in the most public and fitting manner. His life was full of 
confidence in God. Journalizing the incidents of a day of severe 
trial, he wrote: "I never lost my hope; I looked to the coming spring 
as full of responsibilities, but I had bodily strength and moral tone 
enough to look through them to the end. A trust based on experience 
as well as on promises buoyed me up at the worst of times. Call it 
fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is that in the story of every 
eventful life which teaches the inefficiency of human means and the 
present control of a Supreme agency. See how often relief has come 
at the moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, — almost, 
at the time, unwelcome ; see, still more, how the back has been strength- 
ened to its increasing burden, and the heart cheered by some con- 
scious influence of an unseen Power." 

Setting out on the return journey home, among the duties estab- 
lished by precise regulations were "daily prayers, both morning and 
evening, all hands gathering round in a circle and standing uncov- 
ered." Of this exercise Wilson, one of the party, says : " While the 
rest of the party surrounded the sledge with uncovered heads, Dr. 
Kane rendered thanks to the great Ruler of human destinies for the 
goodness he had evinced in preserving our lives while struggling over 
the ice-desert, exposed to a blast almost as withering as that from a 
furnace. Our Commander poured forth ready and eloquent sentences 
of gratitude in that lonely solitude, whose scenery offered nothing to 
cheer the mind and everything to depress it." 



DR. kane's death. 107 

In the near approach of death he was tranquil and composed. 
Every day — "two or three times everyday — he must hear the words 
of life from the lips of her who had taught his own to lisp his infant 
prayer;" and if Morton's kind occupations around his bedside in- 
terrupted her, he always expressed his fixed interest in his mother's 
readings by saying, " Go on, mother ; never mind Morton." , 



The two Grinnell Expeditions, which have now been presented, 
have shown but little realization of the hopes entertained at their sail- 
ing, so far as the relief of Franklin w^as part of their purpose. Lieut. 
DeHaven would doubtless have secured further results but for the 
strange non-existence of any of those documents which it was to be 
expected that such an officer as Franklin would have deposited in some 
cairn in the Arctic regions. If deposited, they were destroyed by the 
Eskimos. Dr. Kane was cut off from the possibility of even crossing 
over to the east coast by the fickle ice and the intense sufferings of 
disease and want. But these overruling circumstances detract nothing 
from the worthiness of the original purposes of these exj3editions, or 
from the fidelity of the officers and men engaged in them. Still less 
can they diminish the honor of the discoveries claimed and rightfully 
vindicated by Kane and by that faithful archivist, the late Col. Peter 
Force, of Washington, D. C. ; or the value of the explorations and 
surveys. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EXPLORATIONS OF LIEUT. JOHN RODGERS, U. S. N. 

THE EXPLORATION OF THE "VINCENNES" A PART OF THE UNITED 
STATES EXPEDITION UNDER COMMANDER RINOGOLD. — APPROPRIA- 
TION BY CONGRESS. — OBJECTS. — SECRETARY KENNEDY'S INSTRUC- 
TIONS. — SICKNESS OF COMMANDER RINGGOLD. — LIEUTENANT RODG- 
ERS SUCCEEDS TO THE COMMAND. — LOSS OF THE ''PORPOISE." 

THE " VINCENNES" LEAVES HONG KONG FOR HER ARCTIC CRUISE. — 
ARRIVES AT PETROPAULOVSKI. — CONDITION OF THE TOWN. — EN- 
TERS BEHRING STRAITS. — LEAVES A PARTY UNDER LIEUTENANT 
BROOKE AT GLASSENAPP. — HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES. 
— THE "VINCENNES" IN THE ARCTIC SEA. — ANCHORS IN LATITUDE 
72° 5' NORTH. — SAILS OVER THE TAIL OF HERALD SHOAL AND LO- 
CATES HERALD ISLAND. — CAN SEE NO TRACE OF PLOVER ISLAND. — 
APPROACHES WRANGELL LAND. — RETURNS TO ST. LAWRENCE BAY 
AND GLASSENAPP FOR LIEUTENANT BROOKE's PARTY. — ARRIVES 
AT SAN FRANCISCO OCTOBER 13, 1855. — SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PUB- 
LICATION OF THE FULL NARRATIVE. 

WHILE Lieutenant Hartstene was nearing the port of New 
York with the rescued party of Dr. Kane on board the 
" Release," the " Vincennes," under Commander John Rodg- 
ers, was returning from a cruise in the Arctic Seas on the western 
side of the Continent. The ship came into San Francisco October 15, 
1855, two days after the arrival of Kane at the Brooklyn navy-yard. 

The very important explorations and surveys made on this cruise 
were in the prosecution of the original plans of the United States Sur- 
veying and Exploring Expedition which had left the United States 
under Commander Cadwalader Ringgold, in the year 1853. For this 
Expedition, Congress, by a section of the Naval Appropriation Bill, 
had appropriated the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
dollars, for the building and purchase of suitable vessels, and for the 
prosecution of a survey and reconnoissance for naval and commercial 

108 



OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 109 

purposes, of such parts of Beliring Straits, of the North Pacitic Ocean ^ 
and of the China Seas as are frequented by American ships and 
trading vessels. 

The Expedition consisted of the sloop-of-war "Vincennes," the 
screw steamer '^ John Hancock," the brig '' Porpoise," the schooner 
'' J. Fenimore Cooper," and the store-ship " J. P. Kennedy." Lieu- 
tenant John Rodgers, then on duty under the Coast Survey, was 
detached and ordered to command the " Hancock," at the request of 
Commander Ringgold, who accepted his offer as a A^olunteer, and cor- 
dially recommended him to the Navy Department. The Commander 
himself had, from the beginning of the proposition for the survey, man- 
ifested great interest in it, having been on duty with the Expedition 
under Lieutenant Wilkes in the South Seas, in the years 1838-1842. 

The squadron sailed from Norfolk June 11, 1853. The primary 
object of the Expedition, laid down in the instructions of Secretary 
Kenned}-, Avas the promotion of the great interests of commerce and 
navigation, as referred to in the Act of Congress; special attention 
being also directed to the increasing importance of the whale fisheries 
in the neighborhood of Behring Strait. The thorough examination of 
that great outlet was expected, as well as that of the adjacent coasts 
of North America and Asia, including the Seas of Behring and Anadir, 
and the Aleutian archipelago, with the east coast of Kamtschatka. 
The Commander was authorized to go as far north as he should think 
proper, and devote as much time to the complete performance of any 
part of the work as should be necessary ; but was instructed also to 
take all occasions not incompatible with these high objects, for the 
extension of the boundaries of scientific research. For the conduct of 

a 

such research, and for experiments, no special instructions w^ere laid 
down, nor were the Naval Officers or the Scientists of the Expedition 
limited in these to their respective special spheres. All were expected 
to co-operate harmoniously in the prosecution of physical investiga- 
tions, embracing those of temperature at different elevations and in 
different latitudes, with specific references to barometrical, hygro- 
metric, and mometric observations, and those of the aurora borealis, of 
parhelia, and the mirage. Eminent naturalists were to be attached to 



110 AMEKICf^AN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

tlie Expedition, and suggestions offered by the chief Philosophical, 
Scientific, and Literary institutions of the United States made part of 
the instructions. Mr. William Stimpson was appointed to be the Natu- 
ralist of the Expedition ; Mr. E. W. Kern, its artist ; Mr. C. Wright, 
botanist ; Mr.W.D. Stuart, secretary and draughtsman ; and Mr. Anton 
Schoenborn, instrument-maker. 

In regard to this Expedition, as well as Dr. Kane's, that under the 
command of Commodore Perry, and the expedition to the Paraguay 
waters by the "Water-witch," under Lieutenant Page, a distinguished 
Naval Officer, is quoted, in Tuckerman's life of Secretary Kennedy, as 
saying that all were either the inception of the Secretary himself, or as 
having received from him such intelligent recognition and support as 
to have made its impress upon not only our own history, but on that of 
other nations. In Mr. Kennedy's Annual Report of December 2, 1852, 
he had expressed his interest in the relations of the Navy to such objects, 
by saying that "the constant employment of ships and men in the pro- 
motion of valuable public interests, whether in defence of the honor 
of our flag or the exploration of the field of discovery and the opening 
of new channels of trade, or in the enlarging of the boundaries of 
science, will be recognized both by the Government and the people as 
the true and proper vocation of the Navy ; and as the means best cal- 
culated to nurse and strengthen the gallant devotion to duty which is 
so essential to the character of accomplished officers and so indispen- 
sable to the effectiveness of the Naval Organization." From the outset 
of his administration of the Navy Department his journal indicates the 
greatest activity, and he notes with obvious zest his arrangement for 
these expeditions. The outfit, manning, and instructions were both 
liberal and sagacious, and their respective Commanders warmly ac- 
knowledged their obligations for his scientific zeal as well as official 
courtesy. 

Commander Ringgold was advised that the resident Russian Min- 
ister had tendered the assurance of an interest felt by his Government 
in the Expedition, which might expect assistance, hospitalities, and 
refreshments whenever needed within the Russian domain. An ex- 
ploring squadron from that Government was announced as about 



ROUTE OF THE SQUADRON. Ill 

setting out. Russian Charts of regions to be visited would be cour- 
teously offered. 

The ships named above proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, via 
Madeira and the Cape de Verde Isles. In the early part of November 
the " Hancock," the " Fenimore Cooper," and the store-ship sailed for 
Batavia, and the "Vincennes" and "Porpoise" to Hong Kong, via 
Australia. After a survey of Gaspar Straits and other localities, in 
July the squadron reunited at Hong Kong. 

In the month of August of the following year, 1854, a reorganiza- 
tion of the Expedition became necessary, the failing health of Com- 
modore Ringgold requiring his return to the United States ; the 
command devolved upon Lieutenant John Rodgers, the next in rank. 
After his transfer to the command of the " Vincennes," the complement 
of his officers for the cruise consisted of Acting Lieutenant John M. 
Brooke, Astronomer ; Acting Lieutenants Francis A. Roe, Thomas 
Scott Fillebrown, John H. Russell, and Fleet Surgeon William Grier, 
Assistant Surgeon W. L. Nichol, and Purser W. B. Boggs ; with the 
Corps of Scientists already named.* 

Early in September of the same year, the " Vincennes," Commander 
Rodgers ; the steamer " John Hancock," Acting Lieutenant Henry K. 

*" Vincennes' " Officers Naval Recokd. — Lieutenant commanding, John 
Rodgers, warranted midshipman, April 18, 1828; promoted to be passed midshipman, 
June 14, 1834; to be lieutenant, Jan. 28, 1840; to be commander, Sept. 14, 1855; to be 
captain, July 16, 1862; to be commodore, June 17, 1863; to be rear admiral, Dec. 31, 1869; 
died at Washington, May 5, 1882. Acting lieutenant, John M. Brooke, warranted mid- 
shipman, March 3, 1841; passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1647; master (in the line of 
promotion). Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant, Sept. 15, 1855; tendered resignation and left 
the service, April 20, 1861. Acting lieutenant, F. A. Roe, warranted midshipman, Oct. 
19, 1841; passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847; lieutenant, Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant com- 
mander, July 16, 1862; commander, July 25, 1866; captain, April 1, 1872; commodore, 
Kov, 26, 1880. Acting lieutenant, John H. Russell, warranted midshipman, Sept. 10, 
1841; passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847; master, Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant, Sept. 15, 
1855; lieutenant commander, July 16, 1862; commander, Jan. 28, 1867; captain"!, Feb. 
12, 1874. Acting lieutenant, Thomas Scott Fillebrown, warranted midshipman, Oct. 19, 
1841; passed midshipman, Aug. 10, 1847; master, Sept. 14, 1855; lieutenant, Sept. 15, 1855; 
lieutenant commander, July 16, 1862; commander, July 25, 1866; captain, Jan. 6, 1874; 
coinmodoro. May 7, 1883. Wm. Grier, assistant surgeon, March 7, 1838; passed assistant 
surgeon, April 14, 1852; medical director, March 3, 1871; surgeon-general, Jan. 30, 1877; 
retired, Oct. 5, 1878; W. L. Nichol, asst. surg., June 28, 1852; resigned Nov. 21, 1855; 
W. B. Boggs, purser, Nov. 30, 1852; pay director, March 3, 1871. 



112 AI^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Stevens; the "Porpoise," Acting Lieutenant William K. Bridge; 
and the " Fenimore Cooper," Acting Lieutenant William Gibson, 
sailed from Hong Kong. The " John Hancock " and " Fenimore 
Cooper," sailing September 9, were sent to the Peiho River in con- 
nection with the visit and negotiations of United States Minister 
McLane. While so engaged, important surveys were made in that 
region. When their presence was no longer required by Minister 
McLane, they surveyed the western coast of Formosa. 

The " Vincennes " and " Porpoise " sailed from Hong Kong on the 
12th of September for a survey of the Bonin Isles, Ladrone, Loo-choo, 
and the islands west and south of Japan, and returned to Hong Kong in 
February, 1855, with the exception of the brig " Porpoise," which parted, 
company from the "Vincennes" September 21, 1854, in mid-channel, 
between Formosa and China to the northward and westward of the 
Pescadores. The brig, with every soul on board, perished. She was 
to have met the " Vincennes " at the Bonin Isles, and Commander 
Rodgers waited for her there beyond the appointed time. As there 
were grounds for apprehension of her safety, since both the "Vin- 
cennes " and the " Porpoise " had struggled together with the storm of 
the date named. Commander Rodgers went in search of her, visiting 
the Loo-choo and other islands and places where it was thought pos- 
sible she might have been driven by the gale ; and afterward the 
" Hancock " and " Cooper " thoroughly explored the island of For- 
mosa, but without the slightest intelligence of the ill-fated brig. 

Referring to her loss in his Report of December 2, 1854, the Secretary 
of the Navy said of her ofticers : " They were all young, energetic, and 
full of professional pride. The service in this calamity has met with a 
severe loss." The officers referred to were Acting Lieutenants W. K. 
Bridge, Wm. Reiley, S. J. Bliss, and W. W. Van AVyck ; Midshipman 
G. F. Baber; Assistant Surgeon J. H. Stuart, and Captain's clerk, 
S. J. Potts, Jr. 

In Lieutenant Habersham's volume, entitled " My Last Cruise," 
Lieutenant Brooke will be found to have communicated this account 
of the sad disaster : — 

" The two vessels in company were struggling with the northeast 



113 

monsoons in the China Sea. Occasionally the veering wind and 
changing barometer indicated the passage of a cyclone. The increasing- 
fury of the wind, and these indications governed the courses of the 
vessels. At length they found themselves between Formosa and the 
main, and during the night of the 20th of September they held on 
near mid-channel ; but in the morning the ' Vincennes,' then to lee- 
ward, bore up for the Bashee passage. It was presumed that the 
' Porpoise ' would follow. 

"While the 'Vincennes ' Avas thus running before the wind, towing 
hawsers astern to break the sea should she cross the banks, the ' Por- 
poise ' was enveloped in a driving mist and lost to sight. This separa- 
tion was regarded as of little moment, for the brig was well-manned, 
and her officers, individually and collectively, were men of the first 
ability and courage : you knew them all. 

" It is generally understood by seamen that sound vessels are safer 
alone than in company ; for the whole attention of the commander may 
be devoted to the care of his vessel without those modifications of plan 
required when acting in concert. In those seas the obscurity of the 
night rendered it difficult to distinguish light, and the sound of cannon 
would be lost in the roaring of the wind and waves. Therefore neither 
surprise nor special anxiety was experienced on that occasion. 

" The ' Vincennes,' having passed the Bashee passage, entered the 
Pacific, and, until her arrival at the Bonin Islands, experienced fine 
weather. The arrival of the ' Porpoise ' — a duller sailor — was 
daily expected. Meanwhile there came on, at niglit^ one of those char- 
acteristic storms of the Bonin, — a hurricane or cyclone. It came 
unheralded, except by the slightly increased sound of the surf on the 
outer rocks ; and it was not until the fitful gusts that, by their peculiar 
tone are recognized by those who have heard it, swept from the hills 
over the ship, that we were aware of its proximity. Nearly shut in by 
mountains, the 'Vincennes,' with lower yards and topmasts struck, 
and four anchors down, trembled from the vibration of the masts and 
rigging. There was no shrill whistling of the wind, but a deep and 
hollow roar ; the crests of the waves were caught up and whitened the 
air with drift. The falling barometer and the veering wind presented 



114 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

all the indications of a cyclone sweeping towards the north. It 
was remarked by the ablest seamen of the 'Vincennes' that she, 
good sea-boat as she was, would scarcely have survived the hurri- 
cane at sea. 

"In the confined China Sea, — near the Pescadores, the wind blowing 
toward the coast of China, — it would be singular, indeed, if no vestige 
of a ship wrecked or lost there should be found. It is not probable 
that the ' Porpoise ' was lost until she reached the vicinity of the 
Bonins. "She bore the character of a good sea-boat, but was short 
and deep in the waist, therefore liable to broach to, or to be brought 
by the lee to fill and founder." 

In March, 1855, the Expedition again left Hong Kong for surveying 
purposes. After surveying the west coast of Formosa, the " Vincennes," 
the "Cooper," and the "John Hancock " proceeded to Loo-choo, where 
the three vessels together began the surveys between that island and 
Japan. Passing on to Simoda, Japan, the surveys were continued; the 
" Cooper" exploring the western coast of Niphon, and the "Vincennes" 
and the " Hancock " that part of the sea lying in the path of vessels near 
the east coast, while the lannch of the " Vincennes " under Lieutenant 
Brooke made a running survey of the coast from Simoda to Hakodadi. 
From Hakodadi the " Hancock " proceeded to survey the Ochotsk Sea, 
and the " Cooper " to explore the northern Japanese and Pox and 
Aleutian islands. The " Vincennes " sailed for Kamchatka to begin 
thence her Arctic cruise. 

THE ARCTIC EXPLORATION. 

Of the most important and permanently valuable w^ork of the 
northern cruise by the " Vincennes," it remains as yet a matter of 
universal regret that no official or other narrative has been published. 
In the report of Secretary Toucey of December, 1857, he said: "The 
work of publishing the survey of the late Expedition to the North 
Pacific and Behring Straits under Commander Rodgers, is rapidly ad- 
vancing; engagements have been made with eminent professors in 
the various branches of natural history, describing the most important 
specimens brought home by the Expedition. A portion of the hydro- 



SURVEYS BY THE " VINCENNES." 115 

graphical work is in the hands of the engraver, the rest is in a state of 
forwardness." 

The hydrographic work here alluded to is, however, all that has 
a))peared. The charts issued by the United States Hydrographic Office, 
Washington, are memorials worthy of the cruise, of the Navy, and of the 
officers who executed the surveys. Of the Rodgers chart, — the track of 
the "Vincennes," and her route through Behring Sea and the' Arctic 
Ocean (No. 68 of the charts of the Hydrographic Office), — in his trib- 
ute to the late Admiral Rodgers, Secretary Folger says: "Before sight- 
ing Wrangell Land, he was met by the ice barriers, and with wise pru- 
dence turned his prow homeward, beating his way back against head- 
winds, and reaching the Straits in time to get through, but marking 
his zigzag course by a line of soundings on the chart of 'Behring 
Sea and the Arctic Ocean,' published by the Government over his 
name, which is still the best authority to those who follow after him, 
and to which much has been added by those who have imitated his 
careful methods, but from which nothing has been taken." ["In 
Memoriam," Treasury Document, No. 277.] 

The charts of the list of the Hydrographic Office are : — 

No. 54, " Bay of Avatcha, Kamtchatkas and approaches ; Nos. 8 and 
5'), " Aleutian Archipelago," — in two sheets ; No. 57, " The Straits of 
Semiavine in Behring Sea ; " No. 60, " St. Lawrence Bay." 

No. 68 (as named above), Behring Sea and the Arctic Ocean. 

This mimber, as reissued by Commodore J. C. P. DeKraft, Hydro- 
grapher of the Bureau of Navigation, gives an extension of the Northern 
Asiatic coast, westward to Ion. 155° E. ; also the tracks and the highest 
point reached by the ''Rodgers," under Lieutenant R. M. Berry, Sept. 18, 
1881, lat. 73° 44' N. This position and that of the unfortunate " Jean- 
nette " when crushed by the ice, June 13, 1881, with other indications of 
recent Arctic Explorations, will be found laid down on the circumpolar 
map (pocket of this volume). 

It has not been found practicable to furnish a reply to the many 
inquiries which have been made as to the deferring of the publication 
of the full narrative of this Exploring Expedition of 1853-55, or of its 



116 AIMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Arctic cruise ; a fair inference may be drawn from the history of like 
cases, that the non-appearance of the text has been caused by the 
want of a sufficient appropriation for its issue by the Navy Depart- 
ment. The brief notices which follow would have been most gladly 
extended or have given place to a fuller history, if such had appeared. 
They are, however, derived from the letters of the Commander, the 
Ship's log, and the Reports of the Secretaries of the Navy, with some 
notes of the camping on shore at Glassenapp, by the party under 
Lieutenant Brooke, drawn from his courteously loaned memorandum 
books. 

THE NORTHERN CRUISE. 

July 8, 1855. — The "Yincennes" arrived at Avatcha Bay, Siberia, 
in which lies the Port of Petropaulovski. The bay was found to be as 
described in the sailing directions, large and affording good anchorage. 
The village presented a singular appearance, its houses, about one hun- 
dred in number, being built of logs hewn square, many of them having 
red roofs ; the better class covered with sheet-iron, the red lead being 
X^robably designed as a protection from rust. The village is situated at 
the head of a land-locked basin, formed by a high ridge of land curving 
out and rounding from the main, and then running parallel to it. A 
low sand-spit forms a breakwater across the entrance. On the shoulder 
of the spit and on the promontory of the ridge, were seen the ruins of 
batteries from which the guns had been removed. 

A boat came off with a Mr. Case, an American resident, who reported 
the town deserted, and that the public property had been destroyed, 
and that of private persons wantonly injured by the French. On a 
visit by the officers of the " Yincennes," the burned houses presented 
a mournful appearance, and the deserted mansion of the Governor 
scarcely less of discomfort. This dwelling also was of logs caulked 
with oakum, and lined with painted canvas ; its heating had been from 
Russian stoves, which, as massive squares of brick-work, maintained a 
constant temperature. A stream of clear water, supplied from the 
melting snow of the hills, formed a small cascade in the garden, where 
gooseberry bushes were just shedding their blossoms, and the straw- 



SEARCH FOR- A WHALER. 117 

berry beds were verdant. In the streets many dogs were wandering 
without masters, to die of starvation. Lieutenant Brooke entered in 
his notes of the visit, that the black embers of the burned houses were 
a souvenir of the English and the French conflict, the more mournful 
because the severit}^ of the climate and the cold aspect of the moun- 
tains would incline one to think that into such a country men should 
scarcely carry the cruelties of war. " But the French probably remem- 
bered Moscow." In the calm of the evening the scenery was very fine, 
presenting from one point the wide waters of the bay, the close, calm 
harbor, the distant and majestic mountains, and the light-hued vegeta- 
tion, waving with every zephyr. Violets and heartsease were gathered 
for home letters. During the absence of the officers the seine had been 
hauled, bringing up one hundred and forty salmon with trout ; a king- 
salmon weighed sixty pounds ; the lightest, ten pounds. 

The schooner " Fenimore Cooper " came in from a cruise to Actka, 
one of the Aleutian Islands, which she had visited by orders of Com- 
mander Roclgers, under instructions from the Navy Department, to 
make inquiries for the fate of the officers and crew of the whale-ship 
'' Monongahela," which was lost in the autumn of 1853, in attempting 
to make her seventy-second passage, in Ion. 172 west. Diligent search 
was made, and the Islands of Segoum and Amoghta, which lie on each 
side of the passage, were thoroughly' examined. At Actka were found 
several water-casks, supposed to have belonged to the missing vessel, 
but no tidings of the officers and crew, all of whom are supposed to 
have perished with the ship. 

A visit to the " Vincennes " was made by Captain Martineff, of the 
Russian Army, who, with another officer, had been sent out by the 
Russian Government to meet Commander Ringgold and bring Russian 
charts. On his journey from St. Petersburg, made in seventy days by 
horse and dog, he had at one time been delayed six daj'S in the snow 
without fire. His dogs had been driven by a slightly curved stick. 

On the 9th, an American ship with a cargo consigned to this port, 
arrived from New York via Valparaiso. On the 13th, the Commander 
of the " Vincennes " sent as a present to the Governor of Siberia a 
silver-mounted Sharpe Rifle with ammunition ; the " Vincennes " ran 



118 A]srp:TJirAN explokations ln the ice zones. 

out to sea, taking as an interpreter an old Cossack sixty-seven years 
of age. The " Cooper " engaged for the same office, for a new visit to 
the Aleutian group, a Mr. Fletcher, for twenty years an inhabitant of 
Kamchatka. 

Lieutenant Brooke found his first watch on deck in lat. 52° 59' N., 
made very pleasant by the beauteous phenomena witnessed. The 
calm and complete stillness was broken only by the flapping of a sail or 
the occasional breathing of a seal. " The sky, near the horizon, was 
orange and violet, the distant land breaking into the arch of colors was 
dark, and in bold relief tinged with purple. As the sun came up, all 
changed to crimson and gold, and the light clouds aloft, even in the 
west, were warm and beautiful. To the west rose the gray land over- 
towered by the snow-capped peaks, cold as could be. The waterfowl 
were reflected in the mirror-like sea, and their images were seen at 
every undulation of the smooth waves ; hardly perceptible, long, wav- 
ing lines diverged on either side as they advanced toward the ship. 
Seaward, a thin, low haze obscured the sky and sea, which faded like a 
mirror beneath the cloud." 

July 16. — The "Vincennes" encountered thick weather, but with- 
out rain ; at noon, when it lightened up, Behring Island was seen 
bearing S. E. The Commander regretted that he was unable to wait 
for clear weather to locate the island, which is found differently placed 
on the Russian and English charts. From this date up to the close of 
the month, adverse easterly winds prevailed, with the exceptional calms 
accompanied by the usual fogs. On the 28th, when Lieutenant Brooke 
sounded for deep-sea dredging,* Saxton's thermometer was bent to the 
lead, and sent down, all quills included ; at nine hundred fathoms only, 
it reached bottom, the shot detached itself, and both the quills and bore 

* In Sir C. W. Thomson's *' Depths of the Sea," page 211, will be found the fol- 
lowing: — 

"About the year 1854, Passed-Midshipman J. M. Brooke, United States Navy, who 
was at the time doing duty at the Observatory, proposed a contrivance by which the shot 
might be detached as soon as it reached the bottom, and specimens brought up in its stead. 
The result of the suggestion was Brooke's ' Deep-Sea Sounding Apparatus,' of which all 
the more recent contrivances have been to a great extent modifications and improvements, 
retaining its fundamental principle, the detaching of the weight." The last of these 
remarks will be found confirmed by the Reports of the Naval Officers engaged in the work 



THE "VINCENNES" IN BEHEING STRAITS. 119 

of the rod were hauled up full, a greenish sediment revealing under 
the microscope, living animals ; as on a previous day, when the sound- 
ing had been one thousand seven hundred fathoms, the infusoria were 
proved to have come from the lowest depth by the selection of a por- 
tion of the sediment from the middle firmly-packed section. The ani- 
mals in this section were the most abundant. 

August 1. — Behring Straits were entered after passing between St. 
Lawrence Island and Cape Tchaplin in a thick fog without seeing land. 
The ship hauled in for Semiavine Straits on the Asiatic side, where the 
Commander had determined to leave a party under Lieutenant Brooke 
to make astronomical and other observations. In the afternoon, land 
was suddenly seen close aboard, without the position of the ship being 
well known, as they had no observations. Lieutenant Brooke's notes 
and Commander Rodgers' letters say : " There never was a more gloomy 
voyage as far as the absence of the sun is concerned; as to day- 
light, we have enough of that, for the night is only from eleven till 
one." The " Vincennes " heading N. by W., going six knots, expected 
by noon to make the land, but the continually rising and never-clear- 
ing fog entirely shut out the distant horizon. After several attempts 
to gain the harbor, frustrated by losing sight of the ship's track on 
which eyesight was necessary for safety, by the help of Lutke's chart 
and that of an intelligent Tchuktchi, August 4, anchorage was found in 
Glassenapp, lat. 65° N., Ion. 172° 35' W. The flag of Lieutenant Rus- 
sell, who had gone forward in the boats, was already up. From the 
deck some mound-like structures, the huts of the Tchuktchis, were 
seen, with what appeared the framing of others, — eight pr ten whale-ribs 
set upon end close together. A large number of the men, with their 
women and children, crowded around the ship in their haidars^ skin- 
boats ; they were all dressed in furs, generally with coats of deer-skin, 
and pantaloons of seal-skin, over which they wore looser frojcks made 
of the intestines of whales or other sea animals. They were tall and 

of Sounding, the latest being those of Lieutenant-Commander C. D. Sigsbee, and Lieu- 
tenant-Commander J. R. Bartlett, United States Navy, of the work done on the " Blake", 
in the Gulf of Mexico; the modifications used by them being chiefly the use of the wire 
and of Sir W. Thompson's improvement of the valve invented by Sigsbee. 



120 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

had large heads ; the flatness of their faces, relieved only by prominent 
cheekbones, making them appear singularly heavy. Their hair was 
shorn, except a broad ridge over the forehead. " The women were not 
ugly, some of them quite pretty, particularly when they smiled ; and 
when asking for anything, they put on so winning an air and smiled so 
sweetly, and were so arch and amusing, the officers could not resist 
them. Some had their faces slightly tattooed with blue lines from the 
lower lip to the chin, or on the cheeks ; their hands and feet were very 
delicately formed, but not clean. They wore their hair long, plaited in 
two pendants, adorned with little strings of red and white beads." 

The officers of the ship were much surprised to see persons of such 
fair complexions and otherwise agreeable appearance living in such a 
country and subjected to such exposure. The party made ready 
exchanges of walrus teeth, lances, and harpoons made of the ivory 
of the moose, for needles, thread, silk, and like articles ; tobacco 
being chiefly desired. All could either smoke or chew, and for half a 
plug of the weed they willingly gave weapons which must have cost 
them weeks of patient labor. They inquired for grog, of which, how- 
ever, very little was given to them. This race are spoken of in the 
letters of Commander Rodgers "as a fine-looking set of men, of free and 
bold bearing. Of all the Asiatic races inhabiting Siberia, they only 
have not submitted to the tribute of peltries demanded by the 
Russians." * Though still in a great measure Nomads, they have fewer 

* Lieut. Hovgaard, in his " Nordenskiolds Voyage," pp. 117-119, says of this race: 
" When Yermak Timofeyeff, the Kossack chief, in 1579, fled and crossed over the Ural 
Mountains, he and his successors subdued in the course of a century nearly all the territory 
which we call Siberia; but in the outlying northeastern part of the Old World, a small, 
courageous, but savage race of people kept the restless conquerors at bay. This was the 
Chuckches. 

" Before the conquest of Siberia the Chuckches lived in almost constant warfare with 
the other races in the northeastern districts, in consequence of the raids of one tribe upon 
another. The Chuckches were generally the victors in these wars, and gained great 
renown for bravery, and were considered almost invincible. In the middle of the last 
century, however, Pavlazki made a successful inroad into their country, and after several 
defeats, and considerable losses, they retreated into their inhospitable mountain regions, 
where the victors could not pursue them without great difficulties and endless dangers. 

"The Eussians were satisfied with subduing the smaller and nearest tribes. A long 
time elapsed before they succeeded in entering into any friendly communication or estab- 



LIEUT. Brooke's party on shore. 121 

characteristics accompanying that mode of life than the wandering 
Tunguses. It may be remembered that they were serviceable to 
Captain Moore, of H. B. M. ship "Plover," of the Franklin Relief 
Expedition, 1848-52, when he anchored near them. 

The Commander of the "Vincennes," on going ashore with Lieu- 
tenant Brooke to select a position for the camping of the observing 
party referred to, found the huts to be made of hide, patched over 
frameworks of wood and whalebone. They were small, square or rec- 
tangular apartments, with inner roofing of furs for sleeping-places. 
The culinary and other utensils were suspended from the roof; in the 
centre was a flat stone, over which hung iron kettles. The ground 
was strewn with bones of the moose. 

The hesitancy on the part of Commander Kodgers to leave the 
observing party at this place was overcome by the prompt desires of 
the Lieutenant to secure results which the unfavorable weather had 
thus far continuously forbidden. On the 5th, at an early hour, the sun 
shining cheerfull}^ and scarcely a breath of wind stirring, the transit 
house was landed, with two tents, and spars, and sails as materials 
for building a commodious house. Lieutenant Brooke obtained morn- 
ing altitudes and one at meridian, beside several near it, with which 
last observations Lieutenant Russell's agreed. The station was on the 
shore, at the head of the bight which this little bay forms. Provisions 
were landed for eleven persons for two months, and the party were 
thoroughly equipped for defence, by the gun of the launch, twelve- 

lishing any trade with the Chuckches. They were still suspicious of the Russians, and at 
first they only showed themselves in great numbers, and fully armed, on the borders ; only 
after the experience of many years, and many proofs of the sincerity of the Russians, they 
appeared to feel more and more secure, and in Wrangell's time they came fearlessly with 
their women and children to the distant Russian fairs over the borders, until a mutually 
profitable trade was developed. Another important result of this intercourse with the 
Russians was the softening influence of the habits of civilized Europeans upoi^ the Chuck- 
ches, and their former savagery vanished to a great extent. 

*' The hostile feeling has now completely died out, and of late years the natives have 
also been greatly influenced by their intercourse with the Americans. They do not like 
the American whalers, as they interfere with their seal and walrus hunting; but a com- 
pany from San Francisco sends every year some ships to barter with them for walrus teeth 
and similar articles, and these traders the Chuckches look upon as good friends, as they in 
exchange get brandy, tobacco, cloth, etc." 



122 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

pounder howitzer, fifty-three rounds of canister and shell, three 
carbines, three muskets, and three rifles, with about one thousand 
cartridges and their appurtenances. A whaleboat-built cutter was 
also left, in which to escape in case of accident to the ship. 

At the time of landing, the natives came around them in crowds, 
the children carrying many things from the boat, and thus assisting in 
placing the stores under shelter. Brooke did not fear the people, who 
seemed to be honest and independent. Commander Rodgers and 
Lieutenant Fillebrown took some observations from the highest peak 
of the islands, and Mr. E. R. Knorr, now of the Hydrographic Office, 
Washington, measured a base line on the peninsula. On the next day 
a clear sky permitted Lieutenant Brooke to get a very good set of 
equal altitudes, and in the evening, by the Planet Jupiter, he got the 
transit approximately into the meridian. On the 7th the Commander 
of the ''Vincennes" came ashore to see that the party were not in 
want of anything, and to bid farewell; he informed the chief of the 
village that the party would remain on shore until the return of the 
ship, and that he would reward him if they were kindly treated, but 
punish any offenders. The chief answered, ''AH is very good." There 
was, however, little encouragement, so far as supplies of game or rein- 
deer might be needed, and there were indications of insincerity. But 
Lieutenant Brooke had no apprehensions. The " Vincennes " got 
under way. 

The Lieutenant found himself located on a Peninsula, which was 
almost a meadow land, luxuriantly carpeted with grass, and blue, 
white, and yellow blossoming flowers. The harbor itself, level and 
containing several square miles, is formed by a low and sickle-shaped 
Peninsula, covered with grass; its shores gravelly. High mountains 
rose on the in-shore side ; snow and ice lay in the hollows, but 
were beginning to melt, and the pools of fresh water stood upon the 
plain. 

The party under the Lieutenant consisted of two of the naturalists 
of the surveying expedition, Messrs. Stimpson and Wright, Mr. Kern, 
the artist, three marines, and five sailors, one of whom was the old 
Cossack. Commander Rodgers "had in the marked prudence and firm- 



THE TCHUKTCHIS. 12B 

ness of their Chief the strong assurance that he would find them safe 
on his return from the North/' 

The month during which they remained at this station, awaiting the 
return of the "Vincennes," was occupied by the respective officers for 
observing purposes as closely as the unfavorable weather permitted, and 
it is gratifying to learn that their work, with that of other portions of 
the Expedition, has been called for by the Smithsonian Institution for 
profitable use. Friendly intercourse with the natives who visited the 
camp, and with their villages, was ahnost continuously maintained 
without difficulty; the only exceptions were those of one or two 
occasions on which a native had been freely indulging from the sup- 
plies of rum which had been so inexcusably furnished by traders 
previous to this visit. The party under Lieutenant Brooke had fre- 
quent-opportunities of witnessing the habits, customs, and manners of 
the natives, their means of obtaining their food, their manufacture of 
articles for sale to the traders, and their varied amusements. The last- 
named of these presented some characteristic differences from those 
generally described by explorers in other Arctic regions. In their 
amusements of running and wrestling, the good humor which prevailed 
is spoken of by Lieutenant Brooke as remarkable, the contests ending 
with a smile from both victor and vanquished. 

In performances of another and very singular character, it seemed to 
him that what was done was in imitation of the antics of wild beasts, — 
bears, walrus, and seals. In his journal he says : " Ea-ack-til-ha treated 
us with an exhibition singular enough, and withal very theatrical ; he 
stood out before us, and, throwing back his head, seemed in an agony of 
strangulation; his eyes upturned, squinted and rolled in their sockets 
like evening lightning ; all his muscles were rigid, and he trembled as 
if galvanized. A noise was heard like that of a drowning man, — a gur- 
gling sound, but loud. He slapped his hands violently against his head, 
then, extending his arms by his side, fell like a log upon his back. 
Then his feet went up in the air, and rolling on, he seemed to spring 
up, feet foremost, his head upon the ground. . He was dressed in fur, 
and the long hair about his neck, with the savage character of the 
decorations of his person, produced an extraordinary impression ; one 



124 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

could hardly realize that he was the same man who came smiling to us 
afterwards, and exclaimed, ' Met-tchink-Ka ! ^ " 

The skin-boats used in hunting the walrus and the seal are man- 
aged, like those of other Arctic natives, by the skill of one who sits in 
the middle, in a round hole, just large enough to permit easy getting 
up and down. When getting in, great care is taken by even the most 
experienced to prevent an upset. In all the boats seal-skins, blown up 
like small balloons, are used as buoys, life-preservers, or fenders while 
hunting. 

The "Vincennes," in the prosecution of Commander Rodgers' plan 
of her Northern cruise, entered the Arctic Sea August 11. He had not 
expected to attempt a voyage to the far North, the field of labor, as he 
expressed it in his letter to the Department, being rather to the South- 
ward of Cape East than to the North of it. It was utterly impossible 
to expect to winter in a high latitude, — the ship had but four months' 
provisions and fuel, — and the Commander was "desirous to return to 
the work of the surveys at the earliest date consistent with the visiting 
to the land in about lat. 72° N., Ion. 175° W., as placed upon the 
Admiralty charts from the Report of H.B.M. frigate 'Herald,' Captain 
Kellett ; with examining Herald Island, seen by the same ship, but not 
explored ; and the endeavor to reach Wrangell Land as described to 
Lieutenant Wrangell's companion. Dr. Kyber, on his Polar Exploration 
of 1824.* 

The ship was favored with a strong breeze, but the weather was 
thick and lowering ; she ran on under all sail, getting a cast from 
the lead every hour. August 11, she encountered a stream of drift- 

* In the Narrative of his Expedition to the Polar Sea, 1820 to 1823, by Lieutenant Von 
Wrangell, of the Russian Navy, on page 342 (Sabine, 2d edition, 1844), will be found the 
following : — 

" Some of the chiefs of the Tchuktchi tribes of this coast had spoken much to Dr. 
Kyber of a more northern land, the lofty mountains of which were visible on very clear 
days from the place which they called Jakan, and which they described tolerably circum- 
stantially. From their description it appeared that Jakan lay to the Eastward of our 
present position, and I determined to visit it. On the 8th of April (1824), the weather 
was clear, and the temperature +25° in the morning and evening, and +36° at noon. 
After following the coast, which was sixty feet high, for seven versts, we came to a rock 



TRUE POSITION OF HERALD ISLAND. 125 

timber, some of the trees of which were' so large and numerous that 
she had frequently to alter her course of seven knots to avoid striking 
them. She ran over the tail of Herald Shoal, which had less than 
eighteen fathoms water, and on the 13th passed the island, which 
appeared dimly between the clouds as two small ones. The weather 
became foggy, and the ship stood for the North until she ran through 
the position of the land as given on the Admiralty charts, R.N., and 
came to anchor in forty-two fathoms, in latitude 72° 5' N., longitude 
174° 87' W. In a few hours the fog lifted, and a sudden change, 
peculiar to the Northern regions, flashed across the scene ; it was so 
clear that the horizon appeared without limit. No land or appearance 
of land could be seen from the royal yards. The water, as far as the 
eye could reach, was entirely free from ice, but the weather became 
again foggy. Commander Rodgers, having accomplished what he had 
proposed, and being assured that a longer exposure of his officers and 
crew could result in injury only, returned toward Herald Island. On 
the night of the 14th, the surf was heard sullenly breaking on the shore, 
and at two in the morning an avalanche thundered down the island 
which had not been seen. At six a.m., two boats left the ship to make 
observations for position ; the weather, however, unhappily prevented 
the securing of satisfactory results until further observations were 
made from on board the ship; but these placed the island in a different 
position from that given by Captain Kellett, the Southeastern point 
being fixed by the " Vincennes " in 71° 21' latitude N., 175° 20' longi- 
tude W. The island was found to have the form of a half-moon, its 
horns being connected by a less elevated isthmus, which gave the ap- 
pearance of there being two islands, for the isthmus might be below 
the horizon, while the extremes are above it. The sides were found 

projecting some way into the sea, behind which the shore suddenly becomes low and flat, 
consisting of gravel and weathered fragments of rock. The place corresponded per- 
fectly, in these and other respects, with the description which the chiefs had given to Dr. 
Kyber of Cape Jakan. I determined its latitude 69° 42' ; and its longitude is 176° 32' by 
reckoning, dependent on our observation the day before. We gazed long and earnestly on 
the horizon in hopes, as tlie atmosphere was clear, of discerning some appearance of the 
northern land, which the Tchuktchis affirm they have seen from this place, but we could 
see nothing of it." 



126 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

very steep and full of danger, nearly causing the loss of life of an 
officer who endeavored to climb them, a piece of rock giving way under 
his foot ; the frost had broken up the friable material of the rocks 
and earth. John Watts, an active man of the boat's crew, and with 
good eyesight, succeeded in reaching the summit, but no land could be 
seen in any direction, although the horizon was excellent, and Com- 
mander Rodgers was compelled to write : ''It would be far pleasanter to 
confirm the discovery of other land than Herald Island, than to believe 
that Commodore Kellett was mistaken in his views ; yet we were 
convinced, however unwillingly, that appearances had deceived him. 
Several times land was reported to us by the man at the masthead, 
which eventually proved to be only clouds, and sometimes where I 
knew no land could be seen, since we had passed through the position 
on which it was said to be. On the 15th we ran for Plover Island. 
The air was clear and bracing, but when half way to the position of the 
land, as placed on the chart, we were stopped by a barrier of ice. At 
but half the distance the ' Herald ' had been, nothing from the royal 
yards in the favorable weather we had, could be seen, and I am forced 
to the conclusion that Plover Island does not exist. Captain Kellett 
could only give his honest conclusions, and it would have been wrong 
to omit the notice of such palpable appearances ; for any navigator, under 
the circumstances which controlled his acts, must have followed his 
course in giving his convictions, and then have left the matter to the 
investigations of time and the confirmation or rejection of those who 
should have better opportunities for ascertaining the truth of what he 
saw as probable." 

The log of the " Vincennes " at this period presents a number of 
items of special interest, some of which are here presented : "August 13, 
at 7 A. M., the fog lifted. Sent lookouts to the royal yards, and took 
a careful look around. Could see no appearance of land ; horizon to 
W. ^N". W. and N. good and clear for a radius of thirty miles. Nothing 
in sight. A bright lookout for land and ice ahead. The 'Vincennes' 
at anchor, lat. 72° 05' 27" without current ; 72° 02' 27," allowing a cur- 
rent of one knot per hour. Southeast by E., Ion. 174° 37' 15" W." 

The log of the 14th has the minutes, "from eight to meridian, 



127 

sounded every hour ; each time got bottom with forty-three fathoms ; 
bottom hard. Fired a gun for the purpose of ascertaining by echo our 
distance from land; — heard no echo. At 3 A. M., the weather very 
clear and light, a pink and rose-colored band of light rested over the 
southern horizon at an altitude of about five degrees, embracing an 
amplitude from S. S. W. to N. E. From meridian to four, fired two 
guns to perceive echo. It was believed to be observed at both trials. 
Current running north by w^est." 

The log of the loth. '* At 1 A. m., fog lifting, made Herald Island. 
The bay of Middle Point covered with ice, which extended to N. W. 
by N. Different portions of the island covered with snow and ice. 
Depth of water at 4 A. M., twenty-four fathoms. Two boats left the 
ship to land on Herald Island to take observations. No other land in 
sight. Small floes of ice drifting to the north. The boats returned, 
bringing specimens of plants and minerals and of birds, which were 
exceedingly numerous and so tame as to be caught by the hand. At 
noon Herald Island about three miles distant. Xo other land in sight 
from royal yard, with a clear horizon to north and northwest. Lati- 
tude observed 71° 21' 36" N." 

The log of the 16th. '' Distance from Herald Island, per log, 106| 
miles. Ice seen from deck from S. to W. by N., packed, and as far as 
the eye can reach from the top masthead. At 8.30 tacked ship, a bar- 
rier of ice extending from S. to N. W. Sent lookouts aloft ; weather 
clear. Could see a radius of thirty miles; no land in sight except 
Herald Island." 

The log of the 17th. "Latitude 68° 45' 20". From eight to merid- 
ian sounded every hour ; twenty-eight fathoms ; bottom, soft mud and 
shells. Found the surface current .584 knot per hour, N. W. ; at two 
fathoms' depth .642 knots per hour ; at five fathoms' depth .817 knots 
per hour, N. W. ; at fifteen fathoms' depth .758 knots." ' 

The log of the 18th. "Passed a large log of drift-wood; water 
whitish-green color. At 6.05 a.m. made the coast of Asia, distance 
forty miles ; high volcanic cone ; land in view along the southern board, 
an elevated promontory, supposed to be Cape North. A large number 
of birds of different species." 



128 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIOXS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The *' Viiiceiines" now ran for Wrangell Land. On the 19th the 
weather Avas foggy, masses of ice floated near, and a wall-like barrier 
was before the ship. She was within ten miles of the position of 
Wrangell Land, in the reported Polynia, or open sea, in lat. 70° 41', 
Ion. 177° 21' W., when thus arrested. No land could, be seen, though it 
was thought the vision extended six or eight miles in every direction. 
The Commander '^ had, with some reluctance, stood for this land, from 
an unwillingness to take so much time from the peculiar duties of the 
Expedition ; but he had known that no keel had penetrated where he 
proposed to go, and that a knowledge of the depth, the temperature^ 
and the currents would be of ^value if land should not be discovered. 
He had attained the limits which he had proposed for his cruise, and 
penetrated further than any one in the direction selected." He gave 
orders to return. Continuous adverse head-winds from the northeast 
permitted the rounding of East Cape on the 31st only, on which day, 
with every appearance of a gale, the "Vincennes," making eleven and 
a half knots, ran into St. Lawrence Bay, after making a survey of which 
bay, she again headed south on September 3, and on the 5th arrived 
at Semiavine Straits, where she found the Observing Party left there 
in August, safe and in good health. 

On the day previous, while Lieutenant Brooke, accompanied by 
several of his party, were in pursuit of a bear, on the Island Thirklook 
in Glasenapp Harbor, from the height of a spur of the mountain they 
had been delighted with the sight of a ship at such distance as to 
appear like a baidar, but Avith all her sails identifying her as the sloop- 
of-war. At night he made the usual rocket and other signals. On the 
6th two guns were fired to assure Commander Rodgers of the safety of 
the party; the " Vincennes," rounding the point with her broad pen- 
nant flying, answered a salute of thirteen guns from the camping party. 
Commander Rodgers on landing fulfilled his promise to the Chief, 
Caroorgar, by a liberal number of presents, including rice, molasses, and 
bread, and adding others for the villagers. When these had come to- 
gether, Caroogar took some of the rice and molasses from each pan, 
and scattered it to the northeast and southeast ; then shading his eyes 
♦with his hand, and looking right at the sun, offered a portion to that 
luminary. 



DIFFICULTIES OF THE SURVEY. 129 

A supply of greens was much aeeded on board the ship, on which 
more than twenty men were still on the sick-list with scurvy, but the 
lateness of the season prevented the gathering of anything, except a 
small quantity of sorrel. A moderate quantity of venison was obtained. 

RETURN TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

r 

September IT. — The shore party having returned on board, and the 
surveys of the harbor being completed, a line of soundings was run at 
the entrance of the Strait, and its outward passage examined by Lieu- 
tenants Brooke and Fillebrown and Mr. Knorr. On the 24th the pas- 
sage through the Aleutian chain was made by night, through the Straits 
of Amoukta. This passage was found to be excellent, "the widest and 
probably the best through these seas." Nothing of special interest oc- 
curring on her return, October 13th, the "Yincennes" anchored in the 
harbor of San Francisco, which she would have more readily made if 
the Light-house Register had not shown three light-houses as built, and 
all alike, when one only was there. The " Hancock " and the " Feni- 
more Cooper" arrived in port the da}^ following. 

In communicating to Secretary Dobbin the results of the cruise, the 
Commander regretted the recurrence of the unfavorable weather which 
had so frequently prevented the observations of the character he desired. 
Soon after leaving Hakodadi, in Japan, he had entered into a region of 
fogs, which extended far into the Arctic Seas. " The general observation 
of the land and of the heavenly bodies renders surveying results at 
such times comparatively meagre. The Russians complain that a ship 
may cruise a whole season without doing valuable work, and the reason 
is plain; for the currents make it impossible for her to hold for any 
length of time a position near the land which is invisible ; and, when 
opportunity for observing comes, the laborer finds himself in a place far 
different from the one he desired. When he regains his position the 
fog may have hidden everything. A steamer manifestly is the only fit 
vessel for such seas, but the ' Yincennes ' is a sailing-ship." 

It was natural that Commander Rodgers should express his sensitive- 
ness on the point of his success in the surveys, which he did by adding 
to this the words : " We have reason to congratulate ourselves if our 



130 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

results should prove valuable or satisfactory." Their worth has been 
already shown ; the Admiralty charts acknowledge it. 

Closely following this Report to the Secretary, Commander Rodgers. 
forwarded to the Navy Department a series of recommendations sub- 
mitted by Acting Lieutenant Stevens of the " Hancock " for further 
surveys in the Pacific. Referring to the Kurile Islands, that officer 
suggested their thorough examination, the Southern Isles being very 
incorrectly charted ; some of them reported by Avhalers to be a degree 
further east than their true positions. The north side of Jesso, or 
Matsmai, also required survey. If possible, a port should be opened for 
the whalers, since they pass along its shores, and miglit receive supplies 
not available on the Kamtschatka coast, their next stopping-place. Both 
the approaches to the Amoor River were recommended for examina- 
tion ; and that the river itself be visited, not so much for the value of 
its channel, so continually changing and unprofitable, as to learn the 
resources of the country and the wants of the people, with whom a 
useful commerce might be established. It might become one of the 
links in our trade with China and Japan : '^ The fertility of the soil of 
the Amoor is almost profitless to the Russians through their want of 
laborers ; but every want can be supplied from the United States more 
readily than from the interior of Russia. And as the country produces 
nothing to make up a return cargo, the money received for goods from 
a trader might be laid out with advantage, and in a very short time in 
purchases in Japan or China." A new survey was recommended for the 
Ishantee Islands, of which the Russian charts were found iiisufficient ; 
further examinations also of the Gulfs of Jamsk, Jijiginsk, and the 
harbor of Bolcharltsk, lat. 52° 50' N., Ion. 156 E., near which the right 
Avhale is sought. Numerous American vessels annually cruise there. 

These suggestions, with others from the officers of the squadron, 
were made in answer to the very careful instructions given to each by 
Commander Rodgers, in which he never lost sight of the original 
purposes of the Expedition, — those of surveys, of inquiries for har- 
bors, for the supplies of the mercantile marine, and especially for 
the localities in which coal could be found. It would seem that he 
anticipated at that day the rapid substitution of steam for sail within 



THE UNPUBLISHED REPORT. 131 

the mercantile marine, and to this the experiences of the Expedition 
must have led the thoughts of his officers. 

On the return of the Commander to Washington, arrangements 
were made for the preparation of a full Report of the Expedition, and 
it is with a renewed expression of surprise and regret that it is again 
said here that these arrangements were arrested. As the papers of 
the officers, except those of the naturalist (most unfortunately de- 
stroyed by fire at Chicago), and the paintings and sketches made by the 
Artists and Draughtsmen are preserved by the Government, and as 
several of the officers of the Expedition are still available for preparing 
a full Narrative, may it not be hoped that Congress will make the 
moderate appropriation needed to enable the Department to place 
before the Naval and Mercantile Marine, and the Scientific and Liter- 
ary World, the record of valued labors, made with outlay by the 
Government. In the Summary of these presented to Congress after 
the return of the Expedition, it was stated that the " Vincennes," in 
order to accomplish the survey in the limited period during which the 
Arctic Sea is open, found it necessary to carry all the sail she could 
bear, through fog and mist, incurring the danger of wreck on shoals, 
bergs, and rocks. All that portion which is available for whaling pur- 
poses was carefully explored and sounded, while the scurvy had attacked 
the majority of officers and men. On her return, encountering an 
obstinate east wind, it was for days doubtful that she could make her 
escape before the rapidly gathering ice would imprison her, — an event 
bringing certain destruction. With a reduced complement of officers, 
the labor of the surveys was performed in addition to the duties of 
actual sea service in those regions of tempestuous character. 

In connection with such a record it would have been gratifying to 
find in the " Statutes-at-Large " the passage of a Resolution similar to 
those by which Congress declared its appreciation of like services by 
other Expeditions. The precedents for such action seem, however, 
to have been in this case ignored. 



CHAPTER V. 

EXPLORATIONS OF DR. ISAAC I. HAYES. (1860-1861.) 

DESIGN OF DR. HAYES FOR A NEW EXPLORATION SUGOESTED WHILE ON 
HIS FIRST VOYAGE WITH KANE. — HIS PLANS SUPPORTED BY THE 
SMITHSONIAN AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS. — SAILS FROM BOSTON 
WITH SONNTAG, JULY 7, 1860. — ARRIVES OFF PROVEN ON THE 
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OUT. — ADDS TO HIS SHIP's COMPANY AND 
SUPPLIES AT UPERNAVIK. — CROSSES MELVILLE BAY IN FIFTY-FIVE 
HOURS TO CAPE YORK. — WINTERS AT PORT FOULKE. — OBSERVA- 
TORY SET UP. — OBSERVATIONS ISIADE. — EXPERIENCES OF THE 
SEASON. — DEATH OF SONNTAG, HANS' ACCOUNT OF IT. — THE 
ARCTIC NIGHT DESCRIBED. — ATTEMPTS TO LAUNCH THE BOAT ON 
THE POLAR SEA. — HIGHEST POINT REACHED. — BELIEF IN THE 
EXISTENCE OF THE OPEN SEA CONFIRI^IED. — EXPERIENCES OF 
RECENT NAVIGATORS COMPARED WITH THIS. — EXPLORATIONS AND 
SURVEYS INIADE ON THE RETURN VOYAGE TO THE UNITED STATES. — 
PURPOSE OF A NEW EXPEDITION. — RECEPTION OF THE GOLD INIEDALS 
FROM ABROAD. — VOLUI^IES PUBLISHED. 

THE next American Arctic Exploration on the Northeastern coast 
was effected by Dr. Hayes, surgeon of the second Grinnell Expe- 
dition. A new voyage had suggested itself to him during even 
the severe experiences of his former cruise in the "Advance " ; but it 
did not become practicable until the spring of the year 1860. 

His plans included an extensive scheme of discovery. The proposed 
route was again to be by way of Smith's Sound, and his objects were to 
complete the survey of the north coasts of Greenland and Grinnell 
Land, and to make further explorations towards the Pole, in order to 
verify the existence of the reported open Polar sea, and carry forward 
investigations in the different branches of scientific inquiry. On the 
former voyage he had traced Grinnell Land beyond the eightieth 
parallel, and he now hoped to push a vessel into the ice-belt there, 
and thence transport a boat over it into the open water of the great 
basin which he hoped to find beyond. 
132 




BR. ISAAC 1. HAYES, SURGEON OF THE SECOND GRINNELL EXPEDITION, 
COMMANDER OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1860-61. 



Author of "The Open Polar Sea," "An Arctic Boat Journey," "The Land of Desola- 
tion," etc. Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and of the SocidU de 
Geographie of Paris. 



SAILING OF THE ''UNITED STATES." 133 

The Expedition received the support of the Smithsonian, the U. S. 
Coast Survey, and the scientific societies of the first rank in the United 
States ; while from abroad came the warmest expressions of regard for 
its success, communicated by Sir Roderick I. Murchison, President of 
the Royal Geographical Society, London ; with a liberal contribution 
from the Vice-President of the Society de Geographic of Paris, M. de 
la Roquette. Through the interest manifested by the friends of the 
Expedition in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Albany, contribu- 
tions were secured sufficient to equip one vessel; — the original and 
wise plan of Dr. Hayes to have two, one of them a small steamer, to 
use her steam-power only in the ice, was found impracticable. 

The fore-and-aft schooner " Spring Hill," of one hundred and thirty- 
three tons, was purchased at Boston, her name being changed to the 
"United States"; a change legalized by Congress. Mr August Sonntag, 
who, since his return with Dr. Kane, had been engaged in scientific 
work in Mexico, declined an appointment as Associate Director of the 
Dudley Observatory, Albany, to be the astronomer of the Expedition. 
He was the only educated person on whom Hayes could call on the 
cruise. The party numbered in all fifteen persons. 

From the Smithsonian and the Coast Surve}^ Hayes had received a 
fair equipment for scientific investigations, supplemented by additions 
from Mr. Tagiiabue and Mr. Green of New York. The outfit of 
clothing, provisions, and ammunition was far better than that of Dr. 
Kane's in 1853. 

July 7, 1860, the ship sailed from Boston harbor. Upon her course for 
the outer Capes of Newfoundland, inside of Sable Island, on the second 
day out, a dense fog settled down for the anxious term of six days, — 
at one time the black wall of the breakers closing fast upon her, until 
the schooner came round to the wind, and a steady helm saved all. 

On the 30th, the crossing of the Arctic circle was celebrated by a 
salute and a display of bunting : the average run of one hundred miles 
a day had been made for twenty days ; at midnight, sunlight still 
flooded cheeringl}^ the cabin of the " United States." 

After her first heavy Arctic experience, the loss of all her canvas 
except the mainsail while passing through Davis Strait, by August 3 



134 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

she Avas but forty miles from Proven, and Hayes indulged the pleasing 
hope of an early landing ; but the wind suddenly died out, keeping her 
off the land till the twenty-fourth day of their voyage, when the harbor 
Avas entered; the fog then lifting, Greenland, with its broad valleys, deep 
ravines, mountains, and frowning black and desolate cliffs, was in full 
sight, and iceberg after iceberg burst into view like castles in a fairy 
tale. 




BELTED ICEBERG. 

As seen by C. F. Hall on his first expedition, 1860. (Harper Brothers.) 

" It seemed," says Hayes, " as if we had been drawn by some unseen 
hand into a land of enchantment ; here was the Valhalla of the sturdy 
Vikings, here the city of the Sungod Fryer, — Alfheim with its elfin caves, 
and Glitner more brilliant than the sun, the home of the happy; 
and there, piercing the clouds, was Himnborg, the celestial mount." At 
midnight he wrote in his diary : " The sea is smooth as glass, not a 
ripple breaks its surface, not a breath of air is stirring. The sun hangs 
close upon the northern horizon ; the fog has broken up into light 
clouds ; the icebergs lie thick about us ; the dark headlands stand 
boldly out against the sky ; and the clouds and bergs and mountains 



HAYES AT UPERNAVIK. 



135 



are bathed in an atmosphere of crimson and gold and purple most 
singularly beautiful. The air is warm almost as a summer night at 
home, and yet there are the icebergs and the bleak mountains. The 
sky is bright, soft, and inspiring as the skies of Italy ; the bergs have 
lost their chilly appearance, and, glittering in the blaze of the brilliant 
heavens, seem in the distance like masses of burnished metal or solid 
llame. Nearer at hand they are huge blocks of Parian marble, inlaid 




IPEKNAVIK. 

Visited by tlie U. S. S. " Juniata,"' Capt. Braiiie, July 31, 1873. 

with mammoth gems of pearl and gold. Tlie form of one is not unlike 
that of the Coliseum, and it lies so far away that half its height is buried 
beneath the blood-red waters. The sun, slowly rolling along the 
horizon, passed behind it, and it seemed as if the old Roman ruin had 
suddenly taken fire." In the enjoyment of such views the /explorers 
buried their temporary disappointment at not landing on the new 
lands ; the twenty-fourth day brought them into Proven. 

At Upernavik the ship's company was increased by the addition of 
six persons : Jensen, a Dane who had lived ten years in Greenland, 
-enlisting as an interpreter, three natives as hunters and dog-drivers. 



136 * AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

and two Danes as sailors. Letters being committed to the care of Dr. 
Rudolph, the retiring chief trader, who was about to return to Denmark, 
and would transmit them to the United States through the American 
Consul at Copenhagen, the ship again left the coast, heading north. 

Tessuissak — " the place where there is a hay " — was reached on 
the 21st, where, as at the places previously visited, the Danish 
officers extended every facility in their power to the ship's company. 
Arctic clothing and dog-teams were furnished, the number of the teams 
being, however, small, in consequence of a recent prevalent disease 
among the dogs. 

On the 23d, Melville Bay was entered in a thick snow-storm, but 
the crossing was effected without encountering much ice ; — a confirma- 
tion of the remarkable diversity of experience in this water so often 
adverted to by Arctic explorers. * The passage to Cape York was made 
in fifty-five hours. When nearing the Cape, and keeping a lookout for 
the appearance of natives, very soon some were seen running down to 
the sea, among whom was Hans Hendrick, who promptly recognized 
his old companions, Hayes and Sonntag, and desired to join them. 
With his wife and babe he was taken on board ; but to prepare the new 
party for the wearing of the dress of civilization, the sailors soon set 
upon them with the use of tubs of warm water, soap, scissors, and the 
comb. 

* " The whalers have long called by the name of Melville Bay the expansion of Baffin 
Bay which begins at the south with the "middle ice," and terminates at the north with 
the " North Water." The North Water is sometimes reached near Cape York, in latitude 
76°, but more frequently higher up, and the middle ice, which is more generally known as 
the "pack," sometimes extends to the Arctic Circle. The pack is made up of drifting 
ice-floes, varying in extent from feet to miles, and in thickness from inches to fathoms. 
These passes are sometimes pressed closely together, and having but little or no open 
space between them, and sometimes they are very widely separated, depending upon wind 
and time. The penetration of this barrier is usually an undertaking of weeks or months, 
and is ordinarily attended with much risk. 

The " Fox," under the command of Captain F. L. McClintock, R.N., was caught in 
the pack on the 18th of August, 1857, in latitude 75° 17' N., longitude 62° 16' W., and 
was not liberated until the 25th April, 1858, an interval of two hundred and fifty days^ 
during which period the vessel drifted to latitude 63° 47' K, longitude 56° 36' W., 1,194 
geographical miles to the southward, — perhaps the longest drift recorded up to date. 
[The drift of the floe party of the U.S.S. " Polaris " under Tyson was from latitude 77° 35' 
N., to latitude 53° 30' N., — a distance of over 1,200 miles in 190 days.] 



WINTER QUARTERS. 137 

The coast-line now presented the reappearance of the trap formation 
of the island of Disco, and showed a lofty ragged front, broken by deep 
gorges of picturesque view, numerous streams of ice bursting through 
them. At Cape Athol, on the southern side of Wostenholme Sound, the 
igneous rocks give place to lines of calcareous sandstone and greenstone. 

August 26, the sliip reached a point a little to the north of the posi- 
tion of the old seaman, Baffin, in 1616, and of Captain l(oss, R.N., in 
1818, twenty miles south of Cape Alexander, the entering Cape of 
Smith's Sound. At the mouth of this strait an ice-pack forbade 
entrance, a second attempt being entirely frustrated by a gale which 
drove the ship off. A lodgment was secured only at the close of tJje 
sixth day. It was, however, a disappointment of the most serious 
character to Ha3^es to find that he could not hope to cross the Sound, 
for he had expected from the first, as has been shown, to make a more 
successful advance from the western side than Kane had been able to 
effect from Rensselaer Bay. In a little harbor of Haitstene Bay, lati- 
tude 78° 17' 41'' N., longitude 72° 30' 57" W., ten miles northeast 
of Cape Alexander, and twenty south of Kane's harbor in 1854-55, 
winter quarters were of necessity prepared. The position was named 
Port Foulke, but from Foulke Fiord the chances of a successful ad- 
vance in the succeeding spring v/ere much diminished. 

The preparations for the coming season were much the same as 
those made by Dr. Kane, and, indeed, by all Arctic vessels, and need 
not be repeated here. A house was built on shore for stores, and an 
Observatory erected, furnished with a pendulum apparatus, the beats of 
which numbered 3,607 in 3,600 seconds of time. 

On removing the pendulum, October 12, 1860, a unifilar magnet- 
ometer was mounted, the scale readings of which were recorded everv 
seventh day hourly, and three times daily during the interval from 
November to the month of March, 1861. Four classes of magnetic obser- 
vations — for declination, deflection, vibration, and dip — were made ; 
the series of all the observations, including those of a later date, being, 
after the return of the Expedition, reduced and discussed by Mr. 
C. A. Schott of the U.S. Coast Survey, and published as Volume XV. of 
the " Contributions " of the Smithsonian Institution. 



138 AINIERTCAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The thermometrical observations of the series show very interesting 
points of the temperatures of the regions visited at that season. The 
weather was unlike that experienced by Kane ; northeast winds fre- 
quently were very strong, and kept the water constantly open out- 
side of the harbor. The lowest temperature registered at Port Foulke 
was, however, only —29°, while at Rensselaer Harbor, only twenty miles 
further north, on the same day with this record. Dr. Hayes, on a visit 
there, registered —68° F. 

A visit to " Brother John's Glacier " — the one referred to in the 
explorations of Dr. Kane, and so called by him after his brother. Dr. 
J. P. Kane — was made in the Autumn by Hayes, in company with Mr. 
Sonntag; a survey of this, renewed after a lapse of eight months, 
showed a downward movement of the glacier of ninety-four feet. A 
journey upon it, and upon the Mer de Grlace to the eastward, carried 
the explorers about fifty miles inland, revealing a surface at first 
broken and irregular, but, as the party advanced, smooth and with a 
regular ascent. Their angle of ascent in travelling was at the outset 
six degrees, decreasing gradually to two. The elevation reached was 
about five thousand feet ; but with the winter had come the usual and 
very serious misfortune of the loss of the teams, on which any explor- 
ation depended for success. 

THE DEATH OF MR. SONNTAG. 

Far more distressing than this was the death of Mr. Sonntag, who 
perished in the ice on his way with Hans to visit the Eskimos at or near 
Whale Sound, in order to purchase dogs or to bring the natives to the 
ship, where, for the service of their teams, they could be fed, and the 
prospective wants of the ship's company be also looked after. 

December 22, as there was, in Hans' opinion, a probability that the 
Eskimos would be congregating about Cape York, and that some of 
them might be at Sorfalik, or at other stations on the north side of 
Whale Sound, the two travellers were on their way, hoping that they 
would find natives without going as far as Northumberland Island, but 
prepared, as they supposed, to go even that far. Their provisions 
were made up but for twelve days, and they took no tent, intending to 



HANS' ACCOUNT OF SONNTAG's DEATH. 139 

rely on the snow-hut, with the construction of which Hans and Sonn- 
tag were both familiar. The latter had his sleeping-bag, and was in 
high spirits at the prospect of a few days' adventure. 

The night following, Hayes, whether from a natural anxiety for 
their safety, or from this in connection with the small prospect now 
left of success if they should return without assistance from the natives, 
had a singular and foreboding dream, which may be placed to the 
account of like coincidences so frequently arising out of the conscious- 
ness of uncertainty in times of serious solicitude, but without the pos- 
sibility of one's being able to account for the foreshadowings which 
they prove to have been. He thought he stood far out on the frozen 
sea with Sonntag, when suddenly there came a crash, and a crack 
opening between them, Sonntag sailed awaj' upon the rough waters. 
He last saw him, as he thought, sharply outlined against a streak of 
light on the distant horizon ; but he was gone. 

On the last day of the month Hans came in, but accompanied only 
by his wife's brother, who had assisted him on the journey. His sad story 
to the doctor soon told all. They had rounded Cape Alexander, and, 
without halting, had reached Sunderland Island, made their own snow- 
hut at Sorfalik, and proceeded on their way to Northumberland Island ; 
but there the Astronomer, growing a little chilled, sprang off the sledge, 
and ran ahead to warm himself by exercise, when suddenly Hans saw 
him sinking through the thin ice upon which he had come, which 
covered a recently opened tide-track. He drew him out, but the chill 
was too severe for Mr. Sonntag's life. 

In the " Memoirs of Hans Hendrik, translated from the Eskimo by 
Dr. Rink, Director of the Greenland Board of Trade," Hans gives his 
own more full account of this calamity : — 

"In winter, just before Christmas, the Astronomer and I undertook 
a Journey by sledge to look for natives. We crossed [passed l^y?] the 
great glacier, and travelled the whole day [of course only twilight, 
there being continual night] without meeting with any people. A 
strong wind sprang up from the north, and caused a thick drifting of 
snow, while we made our snow-hut and went to sleep. On wakening 
the next day, it still blew a gale and the snow drifting dreadfully, for 



140 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

which reason we resolved to return. While we proceeded homewards 
the ice began breaking up ; so we were forced to go ashore and con- 
tinue our drive over the beach-ice [ice-foot]. We arrived at a small 
iirth and crossed it, but, on trying to proceed by land on the other 
s^de, it proved impassable, and we w^ere obliged to return to the ice 
again. On descending here my companion fell through the ice, which 
was nothing but a thick sheet of snow and water. I stooped, but was 
unable to seize him, it being very low tide. As a last resort, I remem- 
bered a strap hanging on the sledge-poles ; this I threw to him, and 
when he had tied it around his body I pulled, but found it very difti- 
cult. At length I succeeded in pulling him up, but he was at the 
point of freezing to death ; and now in the storm and drifting snow he 
took off his clothes and slipped into the sleeping-bag, whereupon I 
placed him upon the sledge, and repaired to our last resting-place. 

" Our. road being very rough, I cried from despair for want of help ; 
but I reached the snow-hut, and brought him inside. I was, however, 
unable to kindle a fire, and was myself overpowered with cold. ]\Iy 
companion grew still worse, although placed in the bearskin bag, but 
with nothing else than his shirt. By-and-by his breathing grew 
scarcer, and I too began to feel extremely cold, on account of noAv 
standing still, after having perspired with exertion. During the whole 
night my friend still breathed, but he drew his breath at long intervals,, 
and towards morning only very rarely." . . . 

After detailing his own severe sufferings, and his return to the brig., 
and the assistance given him on the way by some fitends and relatives, 
Hans continues : — 

"On my arrival I found my dear wife tolerably well ; but I could 
not be happy, since I left that friend of mine who had loved me so 
kindly, and who also, some winters before, when we spent three years 
together, had treated me with such goodness. Our Commander Ese, 
[Hayes] was gladdened by my arrival, as he had believed me to be 
lost. He inquired where I had left my friend. I replied, ' On leaving 
him I covered him entirely with snow; now I will soon go to fetch his 
corpse.' But he said, ' When the days grow longer thou may'st go for 
it ; but now first try to get some reindeer ; we are longing for reindeer 
meat.' 



HANS' MEMOIRS OF HIMSELF. 141 

" I then remained several days to await a brighter season. The first 
day I went out shooting I got a large rein-buck. Afterwards I hunted 
every day, sometimes bringing home two deer, sometimes three. At 
last, when bright sunshine had begun, a sledge arrived, which was 
engaged to accompany me. We also got the ship's mate for our com- 
panion. When we arrived we dug among the snow, and brought forth 
the dead man, still enveloped in his bag. I feared the 'foxes might 
have eaten the body, but even the bag was quite untouched. We 
deposited him in my sledge, the mate followed with my comrade, 
and we came back to the ship in the evening. They brought the 
corpse into the Captain's cabin for him to thaw. The next day, when 
I saw our Commander, he said, ' I thank thee for thy having taken 
care of him.' " * 

The simplicity of the narrative of Hans, shown throughout his 
whole story of the four Expeditions in which he was engaged, seems 
fully to justify the conclusions at which Dr. Hayes, after much anxiety, 
arrived, as to the fidelity of the native in this matter. At first there 
seemed ground for the suspicion that the object of the proposition 
when it came from Hans, to visit the Cape, was in reality to visit his 
relatives there, and bring them up to be near him ; for now three of 
them were on board ship. Nor was it at all satisfactory to have had no 



* Captain Nares says of Hans, when employed by him, " He proved to be an admirable 
hunter and an excellent dog-driver. When a lad of nineteen years (in 1853) he joined 
Dr. Kane's expedition. After rendering invaluable services to his companions during 
their two winters' stay at Rensselaer Harbor, Smith Sound, he married Merkat, the 
daughter of Shanghu, one of the 'Arctic Highlanders,' who tended him while lying sick 
at Hartstene Bay. He remained behind with his wife when Dr. Kane abandoned his 
vessel and travelled south to Upernavik in boats. 

'* In 1860, after he had passed five years with the ' Arctic Highlanders,' Dr. Hayes, find- 
ing Hans at Cape York, took him and wife and child on board his vessel, the ' United 
States.' On the homeward voyage, in 1861, he was landed, with his belongings, at Uper- 
navik. In 1871 he joined Captain Hall, in the 'Polaris,' taking his wife an(J three chil- 
dren with him. He was one of the party who was separated from the ' Polaris ' in a gale 
of wind, and drifted during the long winter of 1872-73 from Smith Sound to the south- 
ward of Hudson's Straits. During this time he and Joe — another Eskimo — preserved 
the lives of their companions by their indefatigable and noble exertions in hunting and 
procuring seals." 

"Hans' Memoirs," translated by Dr. Eink, and edited by Dr. Stevens, is a curious pro- 
duction, interesting by its simple native expressions, some of which could not bear precise 
translation. The visit to New York and Washington will amuse the reader. 



142 AMEEICAX EXPLORATIONS IK THE ICE ZONES. 

message from the Astronomer, or to think that he would have travelled 
five miles in wet clothing, especially as he was accompanied by one who 
was familiar with provision for such necessities, and who could have 
made him immediately comfortable in the sleeping-bag until he had 
dried the clothing. Yet, as Hans constantly repeated identically the 
same story in a straightforward way, and as it was at all times for his 
own interest to be faithful to the one who, of all on the ship, was his 
best friend. Dr. Hayes settled into the assurance that it was a true 
account whicli had been given, and that it would be unreasonable, as 
well as unjust, to suspect Hans of desertion. 

In the middle of the month following, when the season permitted 
it, the body was recovered by the assistance of Mate Henry Dodge of 
the ship, who went down to Sorfalik with two dog-teams, one driven 
by Hans and one by a native who had come into the ship. Hans 
without difficulty recognized the locality by a rock near by, but the 
remains were disinterred with extreme labor, the winds having piled 
up the snow to the complete burial of the hut. The thermometer 
stood at forty degrees below zero. 

Mr. Sonntag's body was placed in the Observatory, " where his fine 

mind had been intent, a few v/eeks before, on pursuits the delight of 

his life," until a grave was dug in the frozen terrace ; then the burial 

service was read, and afterward a neat mound raised, with a chiselled 

inscription : — 

AUGUST SONNTAG. 

Died, December 28, 1868, 

Aged 28 years. 

A cross surmounted the monument.* 

The experience of the weary Arctic night of months, in place of 
the days which the inhabitant of happier climes enjoys, has been spread 

* In the vestibule of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, hangs a portrait of the young 
astronomer. Under it are the sad words, "Perished in the ice at Port Foulke, latitude 
78° 17' 14'' N., December 28, 1860." On the faded United States flag draped above the 
young man's head are the words, "From his class in Albany Female Academy, June, 
1860." May 7, 1873, Dr. Emil Bessels and Mr. K. W. D. Bryan, of the U. S. S. " Polaris," ' 
when visiting Port Foulke, found the Astronomer's grave despoiled by the Eskimos, for 
the sake of the wood of his coffin. The travellers replaced the remains, refilled the grave, 
and reset the licadstone. 



144 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

upon the records of all Arctic explorers ; and the wonderful power of 
partial adaptation in man to the strange circumstances in which he 
finds himself when in the new regions of darkness — the peculiar sen- 
timents which such changed relations inspire — are most forcibly and 
happily expressed in the volume from which most of the preceding 
narrative is drawn. A citation from Hayes' Journal will be appre- 
ciated : " January 16, 1861. Our eyes now turn wistfully to the South, 
eagerly watching for the tip of Aurora's chariot, as the fair goddess of 
the morning rises from the sea to drop a ray of gladness from her rosy 
fingers into this long-neglected world. It is almost a month since we 
passed the darkest day of winter, and it will be a long time yet before 
we have light ; but it is time for us now to have at noontime a faint 
flush upon the horizon. A faint twilight flush mounting the southern 
sky to-day at the meridian hour, though barely perceptible, was a 
cheering sight to all. We feel that the veil of night is lifting, that the 
cloud is passing away, that the load of darkness is being lightened. . . . 
" The people have exhausted their means of amusement ; we long 
for the day and for work. Talk as you will of pluck and of manly 
amusement, this Arctic night is a severe ordeal. It is a severe trial to 
the moral and the intellectual faculties. The cheering influences of 
the rising sun, which invite to labor ; the soothing influences of the 
evening twilight, which invite to repose ; the change from day to night 
and from night to day, which lightens the burden to the weary mind 
and the aching body, is withdrawn; and, in the constant longing for 
light, light, the mind and body, weary with the changeless progress 
of the time, fail to find repose where all is rest. The grandeur of 
Nature ceases to give delight to the dull sympathies ; the heart longs 
for new associations, new objects, and new companionships ; the dark 
and dreary solitude oppresses the understanding ; the desolation which 
reigns everywhere haunts the imagination ; the silence — dark, dreary, 
and profound — becomes a terror. I have gone out into the Arctic 
night, and viewed Nature in her varied aspects. I have rejoiced with 
her in her strength, and communed with her in repose. I have walked 
abroad in the darkness, when the winds were roaring through the hills 
and crashing over the plains. I have wandered far out in upon the 



THE ARCTIC NIGHT. 145 

frozen sea, and listened to the voice of the icebergs, bewailing their 
imprisonment ; along the glacier, where forms and falls the avalanche ; 
up on the hill-top, where the drifting snow, coursing its way over the 
rocks, sang its plaintive song ; and again I have wandered away to the 
distant valley, where all these sounds were hushed, and the air was 
still and solemn as the tomb. 

" And here it is that the true spirit of the Arctic night is revealed, 
where its wonders are unloosed, to sport and play with the mind's vain 
imaginings. The heavens above and the earth beneath reveal only an 
endless and fathomless quiet ; there is nowhere evidence of life or 
motion ; I stand alone amidst the mighty hills ; their tall crests climb 
upward, and are lost in the gray vault of the skies, their dark cliffs, 
standing against their slopes of white, are the steps of a vast amphi- 
theatre. The mind, finding no rest on their bald summits, wanders 
into space ; the moon, weary with long vigil, sinks to her repose ; the 
Pleiades no longer breathe their sweet influences; Cassiopeia and 
Andromeda and Orion, and all the infinite host of the unnumbered 
constellations, fail to infuse one spark of joy into this dead atmosphere ; 
they have lost all their tenderness, and are cold and pulseless. The 
eye leaves them arid returns to earth, and the trembling ear awaits 
something that will break the oppressive stillness. But no footfall of 
living thing reaches it, no wild beast howls through the solitude. 
There is no cry of bird to enliven the scene ; no tree among whose 
branches the winds can sigh and moan. The pulsations of my own 
heart are alone heard in the great void ; and, as the blood courses 
through the sensitive organization of the ear, I am oppressed as with 
discordant sounds. Silence has ceased to be negative ; it has become 
endowed with positive attributes. I seem to hear and see and feel it. 
It stands forth as a frightful spectre, filling the mind with the over- 
powering consciousness of universal death, — proclaiming the end of 
all things and heralding the everlasting future. Its presence is unen- 
durable. I spring from the rock upon which I have been seated ; I 
plant my feet heavily in the snow, to banish its awful presence, and 
the sound rolls through the night and drives away the phantom. 

"I have seen no expression on the face of Nature so filled with 
terror as the Silence of the Arctic Night." 




g I 

- I 

« I 

02 ^ 



33 2 



So f^ 
» H 
« 2 



haves' highest point. 147 

In the early Spring the Eskimos replenished the dog-teams to the 
number of twenty. Several, however, died as before. With the rest a 
provision depot for the Summer use was soon established, and on the 
4th of April, 1861, Hayes, with twelve officers and men, started out on 
his principal and long and still-cherished journey to the North. His 
equipment consisted of a metallic life-boat, mounted on runners, with 
provisions for seven persons for five months, and for six persons and 
fourteen dogs for six weeks. He was, however, again compelled to keep 
to the eastern shore, and, consequently, encountered the same experi- 
ence of ice-hummocks with which Kane had met; and finally finding it 
impossible to transport the boat brought out in the fond anticipation 
of pushing it out on the Polar waters, he sent it back with the main 
party, while he continued the journey with two companions only. 
But with these he reached the west coast by nearly the same track fol- 
lowed by him in 1854, corrected some errors of the chart made at that 
time, entered Kennedy Channel, and on the 16tli of the month attained 
a point forty miles further north than Kane's highest on the opposite 
shore. Returning in the same track, he reached his vessel after an 
absence of fifty-nine days, and a journey of comings and goings of 
fourteen hundred miles. To the highest point reached he gave the 
name of Cape Lieber. To the north lay the excellent bay named Lady 
Franklin Bay. In the far distance, north of Cape Beechey, a headland 
was seen, to which he gave the name of Cape Union. 

On Cape Lieber, latitude 81^ 35' N., longitude 70^ 30' W., May 18, 
1861, he unfurled the United States boat's ensign which had been 
carried in the Antarctic Expedition of Wilkes, and in those of De 
Haven and Kane, with several other flags intrusted to him by Masonic 
lodges in New York and Boston, and one presented to the lamented 
Mr. Sonntag by the ladies of the Albany Academy, being " under 
obligation to unfurl all these at the most northern point attained." 
His record of the visit, recounting his journey of forty-six davs from 
Port Foulke, with his companion, Mr. Knorr, was deposited within a 
glass vial beneath a cairn. 

The stay in Kennedy Channel was from the 12th to the 23d of 
May, a period of the year six weeks earlier than the time when Morton 



148 



A]MEKICAX EXPLOEATIONS IN THP: ICE ZONES. 



reported to Kane an open sea in this channel and north of it. Dr. 
Haj'es did not find open water, but much decayed and thin ice, and in 
some places pools of water; in one, a flock of waterfowl, — the Uria 
G-ryllae^ Dovekies. He observed some indications of " the region to 
the northward being annually opened." The coast on the west side of 
Kennedy Channel, especially where exposed to the northeast, was lined 
with a heavy ridge of ice, which had been forced up under the influ- 
ence of great pressure. Many of the masses were as much as sixt}^ 




"UNFUKLING THE FLAGS/' 

feet in height, and they were lying high and dry upon the beach. The 
pressure necessary to occasion this result could not 2:>ossibly be created, 
he thought, by ice-fields moving over a narrow channel, and he believed 
the result to have been produced by ice-fields of great extent coming- 
down under the influence of winds and the current from a vast open 
area to the northward. As during his voyage Avith Kane, and after- 
ward upon this exploration, as well as through the rest of his life, he 
remained the steadfast advocate of the existence of " this Open Polar 
Sea," entitling thus the volume in which he gave to the world the 
account of this voyage of 1860 ; frequently, also, by lectures and 



HAYES ON AN OPEN POLAR SEA. 149 

through the press, upholding the theory, it will not be out of place to 
accredit liim more fully with his arguments in his own language. His 
sincere convictions will be compared by the reader with the experi- 
ences and views of later explorers, especially those of Hall and 
Budington, of the "Polaris," and of Captain Nares, of the English 
Expedition of 1875, to which a fuller reference is invited. 

In Chap. XXXII. of the volume just cited, after referring' the reader 
to the three breaks in the long line of Northern coast through which 
the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans enter the Northern 
basin. Dr. Hayes says: ''If one traces the currents on the map, and 
follows the Gulf Stream as it flows northward, pouring the warm 
waters of the Tropic Zone through the broad gateway east of Spitz- 
bergen, and forcing out a return current of cold waters to the west of 
Spitzbergen and through Davis Strait, he will very readily comprehend 
why, in this incessant displacement of the waters of the Pole by the 
waters of the Equator, the great body of the former is never chilled to 
within several degrees of the freezing point; and since it'^is probably 
as deep, as it is almost as broad, as the Atlantic between Europe and 
America, he will be prepared to understand that this vast body of 
water tempers the whole region with a warmth above that which is 
otherwise natural to it ; and that the Almighty hand, in the all-wise 
dispensation of His power, has thus placed a bar to its congelation : 
and he will read in this another symbol of Nature's great law of circu- 
lation, which, giving water to the parched earth and moisture to the 
air, moderates as well the temperature of the Zones — cooling the 
Tropic with a current of water from the Frigid, and warming the 
Frigid with a current from the Tropic." 

" Bearing these facts in mind, the reader will perceive that it is the 
surface water only which ever reaches so low a temperature that it is 
changed to ice ; and he will also perceive that when the wind ' moves 
the surface water, the particles which have become chilled by contact 
with the air mingle in the rolling waves with the warm waters beneath, 
and hence that ice can only form in sheltered places, or where the 
water of some bay is so shoal, and the current so slack, that it becomes 
chilled to the very bottom, or where the air over the sea is uniformly 



150 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

calm. He will remember, however, that the winds blow as fiercely 
over the Polar Sea as in any other quarter of the world ; and he will, 
therefore, have no difficulty in comprehending that the Polar ice covers 
but a small part of the Polar water ; and that it exists only where it is 
nursed and protected by the land. It clings to the coasts of Siberia, 
and springing thence across Behring Strait to America, it hugs the 
American shore, fills the narrow channels which drain the Polar 
waters into Baffin Bay through the Parry Archipelago ; crosses thence 
to Greenland, from Greenland to Spitzbergen, and from Spitzbergen to 
Nova Zembla, — thus investing the Pole in aii uninterrupted land- 
clinging belt of ice, more or less broken, as well in Winter as in Sum- 
mer, and the fragments ever moving to and fro, though never widely 
separating, forming a barrier against which all the arts and energies of 
man have not hitherto prevailed.' . . . 

"With the warm flood of the Gulf Stream pouring northward, and 
keeping the waters of the Polar Sea at a temperature above the 
freezing p^int, while the winds, blowing as constantly under the 
Arctic as under the Tropic sky, and the ceaseless currents of the sea 
and the tide-flow of the surface keep the waters ever in movement, .it 
is not possible that even any considerable portion of this extensive sea 
can be frozen over. At no point within the Arctic Circle has there 
been found an ice-belt extending, either in Winter or in Summer, more 
than from fifty to a hundred miles from land. And even in the nar- 
row channels separating the islands of the Parry Archipelago, in 
Baffin Bay in the North Water, and the mouth of Smith Sound, — 
everjnvhere within the broad area of the Frigid Zone, the waters will 
not freeze except when sheltered by the land, or when an ice-pack, 
accumulated by a long continuance of winds from one quarter, affords 
the same protection. That the sea does not close except when at rest, 
I had abundant reason to know during the late winter : for at all 
times, even when the temperature of the air was below the freezing 
point of mercury, I could hear from the deck of the schooner the roar 
of the beating waves." 

Influenced chiefly by such indications as these, additionally to 
his strong confidence in the extent of the open water reported by 



NARES ON AN OPEN POLAR SEA. 151 

Morton, and by the observations made by more than one Explorer of 
the migrations of animal life Northward, Dr. Hayes felt himself justi- 
fied in affirming that an open sea exists, and that both it and the 
North Pole may be reached with steam vessels by pushing through the 
ice-belt, either through Smith's Sound, or by a route west and north of 
Spitzbergen. In this conviction, he entertained, after his return, the 
hope of going back in the early part of the following Spring, and 
reaching the Open Sea, if not in one season, in the next. His plans 
for this, however, were suspended instantly on his landing at Boston, 
by the news of the existing conflict against the Government, to which 
he immediately offered his services and his ship. 

It will not be out of place here, w^hile according the highest esti- 
mate of Dr. Hayes' ability and of his reasonings and convictions, to 
bring beside this much-discussed question of the Open Sea, the consid- 
eration which it has received by two of the later explorers, Nares and 
Koldwey. The experience of the "Polaris," under Captain Hall, will 
be stated in the notice of that American Exploration. 

In the Introduction to the " Narrative of the English Expedition of 
1875," under Captain Nares, Captain Richards, Hydrographer to the 
Admiralty, says: "The latter-day theory of an open Polar Sea rests on 
no foundation, practical or philosophical. Even if it could be sliown 
that a somewhat higher mean temperature is theoretically due in that 
area where the sun is for six consecutive months above the horizon, 
and for a similar period below it, this would avail nothing; for the 
dissolution of the Winter's ice is not dependent on the influence of the 
Summer's heat alone ; otherwise the difficulties of Arctic navigation 
would disappear, at any rate for some short period, during every season. 

•'A variety of otlier elements are equally as important. Chief 
among them is the action of the winds and tides to break up the 
decaying floes, but paramount above all others is the necessity for suffi- 
cient outlets for the escape of the ice so broken up throughout the 
vast area of the Polar basin. These outlets we know do not exist ; an 
insignificant point of land, moreover, will act as a wedge, or the preva- 
lence of an unfavorable wind for a few days at the critical period will 
suffice to decide the question whetlier such inlets, so important as 



152 AISIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IX THE ICE ZOXES. 

AVellington Channel or Smith Sound, will be closed or open during a 
season. From a ship's masthead or a mountain-summit the visible 
horizon is limited by the curvature of the earth, and those who have 
navigated in these regions will well remember how one short hour has 
carried them from an apparently open sea to a dead-lock, with no 
streak of water in sight. Water-skies are delusive ; an insignificant 
crack or lane in the ice will produce them, and the only admissible 
evidence of a Polynia or navigable Polar basin must be the fact that a 
ship has sailed through it." 

Such a voyage may now be assumed as impracticable, and, in regard 
to a lengthened journey over the Polar pack ice with a sledge party 
equipped with a boat fit for navigable purposes, this also is affirmed by 
Captain Nares on the experience of Markham, Parry, and Weyprecht 
to be equally impossible at any season of the year. 

There may be further cited at this point, in relation to the problem 
of the " Open Sea," the suggestion of Captain Nares, recorded in his 
Journal of June 22, 1876: "It would appear that the sun, unassisted 
by other causes, is, after a cold winter, not sufficiently powerful to 
produce a thaw on a snow-clad ground until it attains an altitude of 
about 30° ; if this is the case, then at the ]N"orth Pole it is doubtful 
whether the snow ever becomes melted ; " and further, the opinions of 
Captain Feilden, the naturalist of the Expedition, and his comrades, 
that animal and vegetable life " specifically and numerically must rap- 
idly decrease with every degree of northern latitude after passing the 
eighty-second parallel." Captain Feilden adds: "If, however, there be 
an extension of land to the northernmost part of our globe, I see no 
reason why a few species of birds should not resort there to breed. 
There would still be sufficient summer, if such a term may be used, for 
the period of incubation ; and from what I have seen of the transport- 
ing powers of the wind in drifting seeds over the frozen expanse of 
the Polar Sea, I cannot doubt that a scanty flora exists at the Pole 
itself, if there be any land there, and that the abundance of insect-life 
Avhich exists as high as the eighty-third degree will be present at the 
ninetieth, sufficient to provide for a few knots, sanderlings, and turn 
stones." To this may be added the remark of Captain Koldwey, of 



GREENLAND GLACIERS. 153 

the North German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70, that "the existence 
of an open sea is founded on appearances which prove nothing more 
than the fact of a patch of open water." 

DR. HAYES ox THE GLACIER SYSTEM OF GREENLAND. 

In Chapter XI. of his volume, " The Open Polar Sea," Dr. Hayes, 
after detailing the incidents of his visit to "My Brother' John's Gla- 
cier," in Chester Valley (discovered by Dr. Kane, in 1855, and so 
named by him from the name of his brother, the assistant-surgeon of 
Hartstene's expedition), enters into a general discussion of the Glacier 
S^'stem of Greenland. He prefaces the discussion by the statement 
that his journey had been the first successful attempt till then made to 
penetrate into the interior over the Mer de Grlace^ the vastness of 
which impressed him still more than on a previous visit. He then 
says: "Greenland may indeed be regarded as a vast reservoir of ice. 
Upon the slopes of its lofty hills, the downy snowfiake has become the 
hardened crystal ; and, increasing little by little from year to year and 
from century to centurj^, a broad cloak of frozen vapor has at length 
completely overspread the land, and along its wide border there pour a 
thousand crystal streams into the sea. [Confirmed by Nordenskiold 
in 1883.] 

" The manner of the glacier growth, beginning in some remote 
epoch, when Greenland, nursed in warmth and sunshine, was clothed 
with vegetation, is a subject of much interest to the student of physi- 
cal geography. The explanation of the phenomena is, however, 
greatly simplified by the knowledge which various explorers have con- 
tributed from the Alps, — a quarter having all the value of the Green- 
land mountains, as illustrating the laws which govern the formation 
and movements of mountain-ice, and which possesses the important 
advantage of greater accessibilit3^ ... It was easy to perceive in the 
grand old bed of ice over which I had travelled, those same physical 
markings which had arrested the attention of Agassiz and Forbes and 
Tyndall, and it was a satisfaction to have confirmed by actual experi- 
ment in the field the reflections of the study — to be able to make a 
comparison between the Alpine and the Greenland ice." 



164 A3IEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

In drawing out this comparison, Dr. Hayes cites the opinions of M. 
Le Chanoine Rendu, Bishop of Anne9y, whose lifetime had been spent 
among the rugged crags and ice-cliffs of the Alpine mountains, and 
the results of whose investigations are to be found in the Memoirs of 
the Royal Academy of Sciences of Savoy. The Abbe, in his essay, 
"comes to the very rational conclusion" that the glacier and the river 
are in effect the same ; that between them there is a resemblance so 
complete that it is impossible to find in the latter a circumstance which 
does not exist in the former ; and as the river drains the waters which 
fall upon the hillsides to the ocean, so the glacier drains the ice which 
forms from the snows on the mountain-sides down to the same level. 
And he closes his argument with declaring the law : — 

"The conserving will of the Creator has employed for the perma- 
nence of His work the great law of circulation, which, strictly exam- 
ined, is found to reproduce itself in all parts of Nature.*' To which 
citations Dr. Hayes adds : " A glacier is, in effect, but a flowing stream 
of frozen water ; and the river si/stems of the Temperate and Equato- 
rial Zones become the glacier systems of the Arctic and the Antarctic. 
The iceberg is the discharge of the Arctic river, the Arctic river is the 
glacier, and the glacier is the accumulation of the frozen vapors of the 
air. Moving on its slow and steady course from the distant hills, at 
length it reaches the sea, which tears from the slothful stream a mon- 
strous fragment, taking back to itself its own again. Freed from the 
shackles which it has borne in silence through unnumbered centuries, 
this new-born child of the ocean rushes with a wild bound into the 
arms of the parent water, where it is caressed by the surf and nursed 
into life again; and the crystal drops receive their long-lost free- 
dom, and fly away on the laughing waves to catch once more the 
sunbeam, and to rim again their course through the long cycle of the 
ages." 

And this iceberg has more significance than the great flood which 
the glacier's southern sister — the broad Amazon — pours into the 
ocean from the slopes of the Andes and the mountains of Brazil. 
Solemn, stately, and erect, in tempest and in calm it rides the deep. 
The restless waves resound through the broken archways and thunder 



THE ETAH ESKIMOS. 155 

against its adamantine walls. Clouds, impenetrable as those which 
shielded the graceful form of Arethusa, clothe it in the morniug; 
under the bright blaze of the noonday sun it is armored in glittering 
silver; it robes itself in the gorgeous colors of evening; and in the 
silent night the heavenly orbs are mirrored in its glassy' surface. 
Drifting snows whirl over it in the winter, and the sea-gulls swarm 
around it in the summer. The last rays of departing daj^ linger upon 
its lofty spires; and when the long darkness is past, it catches the 
first gleam of the returning light, and its gilded dome heralds the 
coming morn. The elements combine to render tribute to its match- 
less beauty. Its loud voice is wafted to the shore, and the earth rolls 
it from crag to crag among the echoing hills. The sun steals through 
the veils of radiant fountains which flutter over it in the summer 
winds, and the rainbow on its pallid cheek betrays the warm kiss. 
The air crowns it with wreaths of soft vapor, and the waters around it 
take the hues of the emerald and the sapphire. In fulfilment of its 
destiny it moves steadily onward in its blue pathway, through the 
varying seasons and under the changeful skies. Slowl}^, as in ages long 
gone by, it arose from the broad waters, so does it sink back into them. 
It is indeed a noble symbol of the law, — a monument of Time's slow 
changes, more ancient than the Egyptian pyramids or the obelisk of 
Heliopolis. Its crystals were dewdrops and snowflakes long before 
the human race was born in Eden. 

To return from this digression : '' The Summer of 1861 was passed 
by Dr. Hayes in the conduct of explorations and surveys in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Port Foulke, Hartstene Bay, spoken of recently by 
Nares as the best winter station on the north coast of Greenland. 
The established routine of observations was continued at the vessel, 
and, in addition, a delicate tidal apparatus was constructed, the read- 
ings of which were made to tenths of a foot, and at intervals of ten 
minutes. Hayes was joined by a tribe of Eskimos, living on the coast 
between Smith Strait and Cape York, and several members of the 
tribe continued with him until late in the summer. This singular 
people numbered about eighty souls. They lived in snow-houses 



156 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



about the harbor, and maintained themselves by hunting the walrus 
and the seal. The chief of this Etah tribe was again friendly. 




A SNOW VILLAGE. 



HAYES RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 

The schooner, having been prepared for sea, was broken out of the 
ice on tlie 10th of July, and sailed from her winter harbor on the 14th. 
After much difficulty and two trials, she reached the west coast, ten 
miles below Cape Isabella. That cape she was unable to pass, but 



COLLECTIONS IX XATUKAL HISTOllY. 15T 

Hayes succeeded in making its nortli side in a whale-boat, and from an 
elevation of about six hundred feet, obtained a view to the North- 
ward. In that direction the ice was everywhere unbroken ; and as it 
did not appear probable that he could obtain for the schooner a more 
northern harbor, and as he had now only five dogs remaining, without 
means of obtaining a new supply, he decided to abandon the field, and 
to return home, trusting, as has been intimated, to be able' at an early 
day to renew the attempt with a small steamer. 

Entering Whale Sound, he had an excellent opportunity for de- 
lineating the shore-line of that remarkable inlet. Through a clear 
atmosphere he could trace the land around from the North to the 
South shore, thus proving the inlet to be a deep gulf, which, out of 
respect to the enterprising navigator who first penetrated its waters, he 
designated as the Gulf of Captain Inglefield. For two prominent 
points on the northern side of the gulf, mistaken by Inglefield for 
islands. Dr. Hayes retained the names Avhicli he had used. He found a 
colony of Eskimos on the south side of Whale Sound, and remained 
long enough Avith them to become familiar with their habits and to 
obtain some photographs. 

After leaving Whale Sound he continued down the coast, and,, 
under favorable circumstances, completed the survey of the shore, 
including Cadogen and Talbot Inlets, as far south as Clarence Head. 
Here he came upon a heavy ice-pack, and was obliged to hold to the 
Eastward. 

During this period of the cruise every effort was made to obtain 
collections of specimens of natural history ; but in this department, as 
well as in many others, he had frequent occasion to regret the small- 
ness of his corps of workers. He succeeded in obtaining some valua- 
ble collections, embracing dredgings from the various points visited, 
plants from several different localities, skins and skeletons of the prin- 
cipal mammals, skins of many of the Arctic birds, and a large number 
of skulls of Eskimos. His hunters captured upward of two hundred 
reindeer. Walrus and seal of different varieties were found in abun- 
dance. During the summer several species of waterfowl swarmed 
upon the islands and cliffs about the mouth of Smith Strait. The 



158 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

most numerous of these were the little auk (Uria alle) and the Eider 
duck (Somateria Molissima), several hundreds of which were captured. 
From these sources he had no difficulty in constantly supplying his 
party with fresh food, and to this he attributed in a great measure 
their entire exemption from disease. 

Continuing his voyage southAvard, he completed the survey of the 
Eastern Coast of North Baffin Bay, from Cape Alexander to Granville 
Bay ; a survey made independently of the charts of his predecessors. 
The shore-line surveyed on the eastern side, a portion of which is 
new discovery, equalled about six hundred miles, and on the western 
side, between Clarence Head on the south and Cape Union on the 
north, about thirteen hundred miles. 

It was with regret that he turned his back upon the scene of his 
year's labors and entered Melville Bay, and after boring through 
the ''pack" for one hundred and fifty miles, entered the Southern 
Water, and reached Upernavik on the 14th of August, and Disco 
Island September 1. The voyage from Godhavn southward was very 
stormy. Off Halifax the ship received such injury as required her to 
put into port for repairs. Leaving this harbor October 19, Dr. Hayes 
arrived in Boston on the 23d, after an absence of fifteen months and 
thirteen days. 

A just appreciation of his labors has been shown, not only by the 
flattering reception accorded on his return by the friends of Explora- 
tion and the Societies which had encouraged his enterprise, but 
abroad by the awards of the gold medal of the Royal Society of Lon- 
don, and of the Societe de Geographic of Paris ; the first of these 
being received for him May 27, 1867, by Hon. C. F. Adams, United 
States Minister to St. James, and the second by General John A. Dix, 
United States Minister to Paris, in 1869. The citations from his 
Narrative and Chart made in the Reports of Captain Nares are accom- 
panied by the expression " of undoubted authority." 

To his two Arctic volumes, "The Arctic Boat Journey" of 1854, 
and "The Open Polar Sea" of 1860, he added a narrative of a third 
visit to Greenland in 1869, made in the Steam Yacht "Panther," the 
property of the Artist, Mr. William Bradford. This volume bears the 




JIO TO O 



From the " Open Polar Sea," republished by J. R. Osgood & Co. 



160 AMERICA^^ EXPLORATIONS IK THE ICE ZONES. 

title of " The Land of Desolation," a name re-applied from the chroni- 
cles of old John Davis. On the visit, devoted chiefly to the study of 
the picturesque rather than the scientific, Hayes had the renewed 
pleasure of observing the formation of the Greenland glaciers and 
icebergs, as well as of visiting the sites of the colonies of the old 
Northmen there. The range of the coast along which the " Panther " 
sailed was more than a thousand miles, terminating a good way beyond 
the last outpost of civilization on the globe, and in the midst of the 
much-dreaded ice-pack of Melville Bay. 

As an Honorary Member of several Scientific Societies of Europe 
and America, with an observing eye upon each of the later Arctic 
Expeditions, he contributed to the press numerous articles on his 
favorite theme, even amidst the busy occupations of his political life 
while a member of the Legislature of the State of New York, main- 
taining a deep interest in Arctic discovery until his death in 1871. 

Note. — The Annual Eeport of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute for 
the year 1861 contains a Lecture dehvered by Dr. Hayes in the hall of the Institution, on 
his Expedition of 1860. This Report contains also Professor Henry's valuable Summary 
of Dr. Kane's Explorations. In his Report to the Regents for the year 1865, Professor 
Henry devotes a large space to a review of Dr. Hayes' scientific work in the North, refer- 
ring in his review to the agreement of the results with those of Dr. Kane as due to the 
fact that in both Expeditions the larger part of the Observations were made by the 
lamented Sonntag. 





I!un-iiu. KiiUi">viii« .V IVii.tini 



CHAPTER VI.* 

THE GRIISTNELL AND HAYEN EXPEDITION OF C. F. HALL.— THE FIRST 
OF Ills THREE VOYAGES, 1860-62. 

hall's MOTIYES FOR HIS FIRST YOYAGE. — ARCTIC STUDY, — LIMITED 
RESOURCES. — REASONS FOR BELIE YING THAT SOME OF FRANKLIN' S 
MEN STILL LIYED. — CIRCULAR ENDORSED BY LEADING MEN OF OHIO. 

— GENEROUS AID BY jNIR. GRINNELL AND BY WILLIAMS AND HAYEN. 

— SAILS FROM NEW LONDON. — BURIES HIS NATIYE COMPANION, 
KUD-LA-GO. — VISITS HOLSTEINBORG. — THE KYAKS. — THE BELTED 
AND THE GOTHIC ICEBERGS. — ARRIVES AT CORNELIUS GRINNELL 
BAY. — FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE NATIVES. — DESTRUCTION OF 
THE "RESCUE," AND THE EXPEDITION BOAT. — FIRST ACQUAINTANCE 
WITH EBIERBING AND TOO-KOO-LI-TOO. — INLAND EXCURSION. — EX- 
PLORATIONS IN THE SPRING FOLLOWING. — DISCOVERY THAT FRO- 
BISHER " STRAIT "' IS A BAY. — FINDING OF THE FROBISHER RELICS 
CONFIRMED BY BARROW'S HISTORY. — EXPLORATIONS IN THE SPRING 
AND SUMMER OF 1862. — NOTES OF ESKIMO DRESS, HABITS, AND SU- 
PERSTITIONS. — RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES WITH THE TWO 
NATIVES AND THEIU CHILD. 

WITHIN a few weeks of the sailing of Dr. Hayes from Boston, 
an Arctic voyager, without companions for his exploration, 
left the port of New London, Connecticut. The prevailing 
sympathy for the fate of Franklin had kindled in Mr. C. F. Hall, of 
Cincinnati, an enthusiasm for the search and for Arctic Exploration 
which failed him only with his life. Through the nine years from the 
issue of the instructions to Lieutenant DeHaven to the return of the 
British Yacht "Fox," under McClintock, he had steadily devoted every 
spare hour to the study of what might be done for the rescue. His 
means were very limited; he was earning a bare livelihood' by the 
daily labor of an engraver; but he found friends who assisted in 

* The preparation of this chapter has been made from a review of Hall's first voyage, 
chiefly as narrated by himself in his "Arctic Researches," published by Messrs. Harper, 
N. Y., 1865. Acknowledgments are due Messrs. Harper for the use of the Woodcuts. 

The history of the Second and of the Third Expedition in the next chapter, includ- 
ing some statements here found, has been derived from the Official Papers and Correspond- 

161 



162 AMElllCAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

securing iDtelligence of what was done by the different Expeditions 
already named [Chap. I.] ; and by the kindness chiefly of Colonel 
Lupton, President of the Mercantile Library, he was supplied with the 
fullest Arctic literature. 

In 1854 the British Government had felt itself no longer justified in 
sending out expeditions in search of the "Erebus" and "Terror," but 
Hall's interest does not seem to haA^e in any degree languished. The 
British Relief Ship " Resolute " had been abandoned in the ice, picked 
up at sea by Captain James Budington, of New London, Connecticut, 
and presented to England by the United States Congress. Hearing 
that she had been dismantled and laid up as a hulk in the Medway, 
Hall secured the signatures of Governor Chase and other leading men 
of Ohio to a petition to that Government for a loan of the ship, in 
which he might go out to join McClintock in his expedition of 1857-59. 
The return of the "Fox" anticipated action on this, but he still urged 
that the explorations made by that ship, though eminently successful, 
had left much of value to be secured ; that they had been made, by 
necessity, in the month of May, when the land was still covered with 
snow; and that interviews with the Eskimos had been found practi- 
cable with detached parties only, and through an interpreter who, 
McClintock had said, "did not well understand them." His patriotic 
sentiments were stimulated by the results of the First Grinnell Expe- 
dition ; and since England had left the field, "the Stars and Stripes," 
he thought, "should enter it." 

Nothing seems to prove more fully the sincerity and depth of con- 
victions — at times insecurely based — than this expectation of finding 
ofiicers or men of Franklin's party still alive. The paper found at 
Point Victory in 1859* showed that Captain Crozier had left the ships 

ence of Hall, which were before the author when preparing for the Senate the "Narrative 
of the Second Arctic Expedition," and when assisting the late Admiral Davis in the prep- 
aration, for the Navy Department, of "The IS'orth Polar Expedition of 1871-73," — the 
voyage of the " Polaris." No copy of either of these two volumes is now available for 
distribution by Congress, the Navy Department, or the Naval Observatory. 

* Lieutenant Hobson, of McClintock's party, had found on King William's Land, in 
a tin cylinder, within a cairn or stone pile, a paper on which was written: — 

"28th May, 1847. IL M. Ships 'Erebus' and 'Terror' wintered in the ice in lat. 70^ 
05' N., long. 98^ 23' W. Having wintered in 1846-7 at Beechey Island, in lat. 74^ 43' 28" 



THE ONLY RECOIID EVEK TO BE FOUND. 163 

on their abandonment, with a weakened party and with the remnant of 
perhaps originally ill-supplied provisions, to find his way toward the 
desolate regions of Back's or Great Fish river. The presumption in 
the minds of most men was entirely against the probability of extended 
life in a single one of the survivors named in that Record. 

But all difficulties in the case were overcome or lost sight of in 
Hall's reasonings, and in his impulse to bear relief. From inquiries of 
the whalers who visited Cumberland Sound, Repulse Bay, and other 
northern localities, he learned that the experience of some who had 
lived for months as Eskimos with the Eskimos had not been severe ; 
and from one of Dr. Kane's party, Mr. William Hickey, he received 
assurance that when he and others of that party had so lived, they 
recove/ed from all sicknesses and maintained their health. Hall con- 
cluded that some of Franklin's survivors might be still enjoying a lease 
of life among that not inhospitable people, and he hoped that by his 
going out and living patiently among them, he could draw out, through 
faithful interpreters, the final clue to the fate of the ships, the men, 
and the records of the Expedition. Other reasonings leading him to 

K., long. 91° 30' 16" W., after having ascended Wellington Channel in lat. 77^, and 
returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. 

"Sir John Franklin commanding the Expedition. 
**A11 well. 

"Party consisting of two officers and six men left the Ship on Monday, 24th May, 1847. 

"G. M. Gore, Lieut. 
"Chas. F. Des Vceux, Mate." 
Around the margin of this paper, upon which, in 1847, those words ' f hope and prom- 
ise were written, the following words had subsequently been faintly traced: — 

"April 25, 1848. H.M. Ships 'Erebus' and 'Terror' were deserted on the 22d April, 
5 leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th Septr., 1846. The officers and 
crews, consisting of 145 souls, under the command of Capt. F. K. M. Crozier, landed here 
in lat. 69° 37' 42" K., long. 98° 41' W. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847; 
and the total loss by deaths in the Expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men. 

(Signed) James Fitzjames, / 

"F. E. M. Ceoziek," Captain H.M. S. 'Erebus.' 

" Captain and Senior Officer. 
*' and start on to-morrow," 26th for 
"Back's Fish River." 
^n Admiral McClintock's "Voyage of the Fox," the date of the year of Franklin's 
wintering at Beechey Island is corrected from 1846-7 to 1845-6, — a correction which, as he 
states, is proved by a glance at the top and the bottom of Fitzjames' Paper. 



164 AMEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

believe that some of the party still survived, were that no Arctic 
Explorer had ever understood better the necessities of a good supply 
of fresh provisions for his men than did Sir John Franklin, and that 
he had made provision for such necessities. In proof of this Hall had 
found in the official papers that a full complement of fresh provisions, 
preserved meats, soups, vegetables, and ten live oxen were on board 
the " Erebus " and " Terror ; " and further, that Franklin had told 
Captain Martin, of the whaler " Enterprise," when off the coast of 
Greenland, that he had provisions for five years, and, if necessary, could 
make them spin out to seven ; he would lose no opportunity of killing 
game, and had already secured a large quantity. There was every 
reason to believe, too, that animal life was found in abundance by his 
men on the shores of Wellington Channel, especially in the neighbor- 
hood of Baillie Hamilton Island, and that Franklin must have sent 
hunting parties to great distances with sledges ; for the tracks of these 
sledges were seen six years after by Kane, DeHaven, Ommaney, and 
Osborne. Hall could say with truth that his expectations of rendering 
relief were based on years of careful study and examination of what 
had been written on the subject; and his appeal was plain and strong: 
*'Why should not attempts be renewed again and again until all the 
facts are known?" 

On the 8th of Febru.ary, 1860, he issued a circular, in the nature of 
an appeal to his fellow-citizens for aid in his proposed undertaking, 
which read as follows : — 

" This is to memorialize all lovers of man, and of 
geography, history, and science, to co-operate by all 
methods and means in their power to facilitate and 
assist our fellow-countryman, Charles F. Hall, of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, in the formation of and fitting out an 
American Expedition, in search of survivors of Sir 
^j/^ A<^nU.^'- I John Franklin's Exploring '^'d.Ytj^ consisting of one 
hundred and thirty-eight persons, only twenty-seven of whom are known 
to be dead; secondly, for satisfactorily settling and completing the 
history of the last Franklin Expedition ; and thirdly, to promote and 
benefit the cause of geography, navigation, natural history and science. 




hall's plans. 165 

"Such an expedition, Avith proper vessels, with a competent and 
experienced commander, officers, and crew, with a complete outfit and 
provisions for from two to three years' cruise, to embark from an east- 
ern port of the United States, and proceed via Davis' Strait, Baffin's 
Bay, Lancaster Sound, and Barrow's Strait ; thence from the north 
coast of Boothia to commence the search, extending it to King Wil- 
liam's Land and the adjacent regions, until a thorough and satisfactory 
investigation shall have been made of all that portion of the Arctic 
world, and the humanitarian object attained for discovering some sur- 
vivor of the lost companions of Sir John Franklin, or of ascertaining 
the ultimate fate of the members of that expedition, who, up to this 
day, remain unaccounted for, being no less than one hundred and 
eleven souls, whose history the loud voice of mankind from all gen- 
erous natures demands shall not remain forever shrouded in oblivion 
while energetic intelligence and American enterprise can hope to 
rescue a single survivor, or furnish the solution of their ultimate 
history." This appeal was endorsed by a number of the public men of 
the State, among whom were its Governor, W. Dennison, Hon. S. P. 
Chase, and the Mayor of Cincinnati, Hon. R. M. Bishop. 

Proceeding to the Eastern States, Mr. Hall visited Dr. Hayes and 
the relatives and friends of Dr. Kane in Philadelphia, and thence 
returning to New York, met with much personal encouragement from 
Mr. Henry Grinnell, and in New England from Messrs. Williams and 
Haven, of New London. At a meeting of the American Geographical 
Society of New York he explained his plans, which were in substance 
that he would first in the North acquire a knowledge of the language 
and life of the Eskimos, and then visit the lands of King, William, 
Boothia, and Victoria. He would take with him a native interpreter, 
and, during his sojourn in the North, employ a crew of natives to 
accompany him. He would first, on reaching Northumberland Inlet, 
proceed up one of its arms which runs westward, and, crossing by a 
portage, traverse this lake to its outlet, which is reported by the Eski- 
mos as being a navigable river emptying into Fox Channel. Arriving 
at "Fox's Furthest " (Lat. m° 50' N., Long. 77° 05' W.), he would pro- 
ceed on the east side of the channel to the Strait of the " Fury " and 



16G AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

" Hecla " of Pany, thus connecting Parry's discoveries of 1821 with 
those of Fox, made in 1631. Succeeding in this, he would hope to 
winter among the friendly natives of Igioolik, and proceed either south- 
ward to the east coast of Melville Peninsula, or push his way across 
the Gulf of Boothia to Victoria Harbor. 

During the winter and spring, sledge journej^s would be made to 
ascertain the chief object of his voyage, and to acquire a thorough 
knowledge of the country. It was evidently in his mind that prepara- 
tory work of a serious character would be necessary before much could 
be hoped for in the matter of ascertaining even this, and as certainly 
in the way of securing any further additions to the knowledge, of the 
Eskimos and their land. 

Mr. Grinnell, who, at the date of this enterprise, and even much 
later, retained the latent hope of there being yet a possibility of 
finding among the natives some of Franklin's men, sent Hall a strong 
letter of encouragement. He wrote that probably no one was more 
desirous than himself to ascertain the fate of the Franklin Expedi- 
tion, and he believed that some of the one hundred and five men who 
were alive on the 25th day of April, 1848, might still be found among 
the inhabitants of Boothia, Victoria, or Prince Albert Lands. He 
advised a visit to the grave of Franklin and to those of some of his 
officers, which, if searched for in the months of July, August, and 
September, might be discovered, and would reveal some records of the 
expedition; adding, "the course you proj)ose to pursue is entirely a 
new and important one, and I see not why, with the exercise of your 
best judgment, you may not ultimately accomplish all that could 
be desired in satisfactorily determining many of the unsettled ques- 
tions indicated above, as well as increasing our geographical knowl- 
edge of that portion of the Arctic regions over which you propose to 
pass. 

" You have my earnest wishes for the accomplishment of the noble 
object you have in view, and I will cheerfully contribute toTvards the 
requisite funds to carry it out." 

The firm of Williains and Haven, of New London, made the fol- 
lowing generous proposal : 



DEATH OF KUD-LA-GO. 167 

"As a testimony of our personal regard, and the interest we feel in 
the proposed expedition, we will convey it and its required outfit, 
boats, sledges, provisions, instruments, etc., free of charge^ in the 
barque " George Henr}^," to Northumberland Inlet, and, whenever 
desired, we will give the same free passage home in any of our ships." 

May 29, 1860, after spending some weeks of preparation in New 
York and New London, Hall left the latter city, bearing with him the 
last cordial farewells of Mr. Grinnell, Mr. Haven, and Mayor Harris. 
The "George Henry" was accompanied by the "Amoret" schooner, for- 
merly known as the "Rescue " of Arctic celebrity, the officers and crews 
of the two vessels numbering in all twenty-nine persons. Hall's only 
companion was the Eskimo, Kud-la-go, whom Captain Budington, of 
the " George Henry," had brought to the United States on his voyage 
of the preceding autumn. The outfit which the explorer could call his 
own consisted of a boat built for him by Rogers, the builder for De- 
Haven, Kane, and Hartstene ; one sledge ; some twelve hundred 
pounds of penimican and meat biscuit; a small supply of ammunition, 
and a few nautical instruments and thermometers. The dimensions of 
the boat were : length, twenty-eight feet ; beam, seven feet ; depth, 
twenty-nine and one-half inches; the thickness of her cedar plankings 
seven-eighths of an inch. Loaded with stores and a crew of six per- 
sons, she drew but eight inches of w^ater, had one mast for a jib and 
main sail, a heavy awning for shelter, and lockers at each end large 
enough for a comfortable sleep by one person. With an outfit no 
larger than this. Hall could hardly avoid saying on his return that, had 
he failed in the great undertaking his mind had led him to embark in, 
it might have been excusable under the circumstances. 

Progress toward Greenland, owing to calms and head winds, was 
so tantalizingly slow, that a fourth week passed while the ship was 
yet a considerable distance from Holsteinborg. She did not anchor 
there until July 7, the fortieth day of a passage usually made in thirty. 
The " Rescue " was another week behind. On the voyage Hall had 
the usual first experience of a landsman — sea-sickness; recovering 
from which his journal entries were those of enjoyment of the phe- 
nomena of the lengthened day, the aurora, and the icebergs. He met 



168 A^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

his first and serious loss in the death of Kud-la-go before entering the 
harbor. Apparently in good health when leaving New London, the 
native had contracted a severe disease whilst passing through the fogs 
on the Newfoundland banks, and rapidly failed in health. His last 
words were, '-'• Teik-ko-seko ? Teik-ko-sekof'' (Do you see ice? Do yOu 
see ice ?) This he incessantly asked, thinking he might be near his 
home. He died about three hundred miles from it, and was buried in 
the sea in latitude 63° N. Having shown considerable intelligence 
while in New York, Hall had hoped that he would render him much 
service throughout his journeys. 

From Governor Elborg, of Holsteinborg, some items of interest were 
learned. The total number of buildings was twenty-nine ; the popula- 
tion in the Holsteinborg district one hundred and ninety-seven, only 
ten of whom were Europeans. In the preceding year the following 
amount of animal products had been secured, chiefly for exchange 
with the mother-country, Denmark : Of reindeer, three hundred ; 
of seal blubber, five thousand pounds ; blue fox-skins and white, two 
hundred and fifty; eider down, five hundred pounds; and unsalted 
codfish, four thousand pounds. The Holsteinborg district was one of 
the five Danish divisions of Southern Greenland, the total population 
of the five being six hundred and sixty-three souls. 

The harbor of Holstemborg, called by the English ships, "Wylie 
Fiord," is an important place for whalers, being well land-locked, 
though small. The rise and fall at spring tides of about ten feet 
affords every facility for repairing the damage caused by the ice to 
ships. Landing is not possible at all times of tide, for " at high-water 
mark a broad fringe of ice margins the shore, to w^hich it is firmly 
frozen, and is convenient to step on to from a boat ; but at low water 
this 'ice-foot' is several feet above one's head, and the rocks now 
exposed are worn smooth and slippery by the constant attrition of ice." 
McClintock, from whom this note of the landing is cited, had moored 
the " Fox," two years before, by hawsers to the rocks on each side of the 
yacht ; yet his anchor lay in seventeen fathoms. He found the moun- 
tainous, rocky scenery around magnificent, but remarks that a little 
more animal life would have made it more pleasing. Very few rein- 



SUPPER WITH GOVEUNOU ELBOKG. 



169 




GOVERNOR ELBORG IN HIS OOMIAK. 
From McClintock's " Voyage of the Fox." 



deer could be seen at the time of his visit, and the five hundred skins 
only of the year previous were in strong contrast with the three thou- 
sand of ordi- ^ 
nary seasons. -^z -^.._ 
The little wood- " ^^ ~"^ 
en houses of the 
Danish Gov- 
ernor and resi- 
dents were 
found to be 
scrupulously 
neat and clean. 
" The men and 
lads," says Mc- 
Clintock, "em- 
ploy themselves 

in hunting and fishing; they are too dignified and lazy to labor in 
rowing, so it is among the disposable young women one must look 
for a boat's crew." 

In an upper room of the Governor's house overlooking Davis' Straits 
and the islands of the harbor, Hall found the apothecary's shop, the 
contents of which the Governor himself dispenses when required ; also 
a quantity of eider-down, like that from which DeHaven and Kane 
had received supplies for their beds. At supper he was served to duck, 
salmon, trout, eider ducks' eggs, white flour bread, with butter and 
American cheese, Yankee-brewed rye liquors, and good tea. He was 
presented with a valuable collectioU of Greenland rock specimens, and 
of fossil fish — capelin — (Mallotus VUIocub)^ called by the Greenlanders 
Angmarset; by the Danes, Sild; and by the English, Capelin. The 
fish is about six inches long, of a bluish brown color on the back, and 
silver white on the belly. The fossils were found about one hundred 
miles up a fiord. McClintock speaks of those he had obtained as 
being of unknown geological date. The earthquake shocks of which 
he speaks as having been felt near this harbor. Hall thought were in 
reality only the results of the freezing in the rock crevices of the 




ESKIMO AVOMAN AND CHILD. 

Fs'i-simile of a Woodcut drawn and engraved by the Greenlander "Aaron.' 



THE GREENLAND KAYAKER. 



171 



mountains. He noticed several large rocks, thousands of tons in 
weight, that had evidently fallen from the tops of two lofty mountains. 
The detached portions corresponded in shape to the parts vacated. 
''The tremendous workings of nature in these mountains of Green- 
land during the Arctic winter often result," he says, "in what many 
of the inhabitants think to be earthquakes." 

Before leaving the harbor. Hall purchased six dogs, selecting them 
at the advice of the Governor, and paying for them ten Danish, or five 
American dollars; for their food he paid twenty-five cents for two 
bushels of small dried fish — Capelins. Kayaks in large numbers 
danced around __ ^ 

the boats of 
the American 
barque. The 
speed and the 
skill of the Es- 
kimos in these 
were matter of 
surprise, the 
Kayaker show- 
ing himself 
*' able to out- 
strip every- 
thing possible 

in the rowing of boats, outside of the Arctic regions." Two rare 
sights were witnessed. One of the Eskimos turned somersets in the 
w^ater seated in his Kayak. " Over and over he and his Kayak went 
till he heard the cr}^, ' Enough,' and yet he wet only Ms hands and 
face ! " The feat is performed only by a few ; requiring great ^kill and 
strength to do it. One miss in the stroke of the oar as they pass from 
the centre (when their head and body are under water) to the surface, 
might terminate fatally. No one will attempt this feat, however, un- 
less a companion in his Kayak is near. The wetting of the hands and 
face only is the result of the close fitting of the sealskin dress, which 
extends from above the shoulders to the round hole in which the 




KAYAK SOMERSET. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



172 AISIERICAX EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

7 Kayaker sits, so that no water can enter. The first sight of this had 
caused the expression of McClintock, " it is wonderful to see how 
closely a man can assimilate himself to a fish." 

The other feat witnessed AA^as that of a native running his Kayak, 
while seated in it, over another. Getting some distance off, he strikes 
briskly and pushes forward, and in an instant is over, having struck 
the upturned peak of his own Kayak, nearly amidships, and at right 
angles of the other. The spectators rewarded these feats with a few 
plugs of tobacco. The ships' companies enjoyed a cordial welcome in 
the harbor during the seventeen days of their stay ; on the 27th they 
were in a heavy snow-storm at sea with many icebergs in sight. 

Two of these came before Hall's fancy as belted and Gothic towers. 
The first of these seemed like the ruins of a lofty dome about to fall, a 

portion of its arched roof already 
tumbling down. " Then in a short 
time, this was changed to a picture 
of an elephant with two large cir- 
cular towers on his back, and Cor- 
inthian spires springing out boldly 
from the broken mountains of ala- 
baster on which he had placed his 
feet. The third view, when at a 
greater distance, made it like a 
lighthouse on the top of the piled- 
GOTHic ICEBERG. ^^P ^^cks, wliitc as the driven snow. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. Jt tOOk UO grCat Strctcll of faUCy 

to finish the similitude when the sun, for nearly the first time during 
a week, burst forth in all its splendor, bathing with its flood of fire 
this towering iceberg lighthouse ! " 

Of the other iceberg, the side facing Hall had a row of complete 
arches of the true Gothic order ; and " running its whole length, were 
mouldings, smooth projections of solid ice, rivalling in the beauty of all 
their parts anything I ever saw. The architecture, frieze, and cornice 
of each column supporting the arches above were as chaste and accu- 
rately represented as the most imaginative genius could conceive. Here 




FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE INNUITS. 173 

and there a matchless perfection displayed itself, in the curvature of 
lines, and, springing out from a rude recess, at a vast height, appeared 
a delicate scroll quite in keeping with Hogarth's line of beauty." 

July 30, the "George Henry" was within three miles of "Sander- 
son's Tower," on the west side of the entrance to Northumberland 
Inlet; August 8, the barque reached her anchorage at Ookoolear, the 
Eskimo name for what has been since known as Cornelius Grinnell 
Bay. 

Before entering the bay, a runaway boat's crew from the whaler 
"Ansell Gibbs," of New Bedford, was hailed on their southward course 
home. They stated, that on account of bad treatment, they had de- 
serted from the ship, at Kingaite in Northumberland Sound, and had 
run the distance from that place two hundred and fifty miles, in less 
than three days. Captain Budington relieved their extreme hunger, 
and in pity for the necessities of the deserters furnished some supplies 
for their perilous voyage, which, according to information received two 
years afterwards, they succeeded in effecting to the Labrador coast. 

The first impression made by the natives around the bay was of a 
favorable character, especially in reference to their good nature. In 
noting his impressions. Hall quotes from the reviewer of an Arctic 
book a reference to the Eskimo race, as being "singular composite 
beings," — a link between Saxons and seals, — hybrids putting the 
seals' bodies into their own, and then encasing their skins in the 
seals, thus walking to and fro, a compound formation. A transverse 
section would discover them to be stratified like a roly-poly pudding, 
only instead of jam and paste, if their layers were noted on a perpen- 
dicular scale, they would range after this fashion : first of all, seal, 
— then biped-seal in the centre with bij^ed — then seal again at the 
bottom. Yet, singularly enough these savages are cheerful, and really 
seem to have great capacity for enjoyment. Though in the coldest and 
most uncomfortable dens of the earth, they are ever on the grin, what- 
ever befalls them. When they see a white man and his knick-knacks, 
they grin. They grin when they rub their noses with snow, when 
they blow their fingers, when they lubricate their hides inside and out 
with the fat of the seal. The good-naturedness referred to here was 



174 A^IERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

endorsed by Hall from the outset of his acquaintance with the natives ; 
their other good points as well as defects were, as would be expected, 
impressed upon him with differing experiences and judgments through- 
out his years of sojourn. Quite a number of the people frequented 
the barque ; among them the wife of Kud-la-go, who had heard on shore 
of her husband's death, and whose tears flowed fast when she saw the 
treasures which the deceased had gathered in the States, for her and 
his little child. 

On the 16th, the two ships sailed for Nu-gum-mi-uke, their intended 
winter quarters. Before sailing, two other whalers, the " Black Eagle " 
and the ".Georgianna " had come in from another whaling-ground. 
The harbor entered by the " George Henry " was not easy of access, 
but safe ; Hall gave it the new name of Cyrus W. Field Bay, which 
it retains. 

On the 21st, the "Rescue " was sent by the captain to examine the 
availability for a fishing depot of an inlet on the other side of the bay, 
and Hall accompanied it, making his first visit to the scene of the land- 
ings of the voyagers under old Sir Martin Frobisher, three centuries 
before. Here he made discoveries of value ; and here he lost hisr 
"Expedition Boat," the only means on which he could rely for the 
prosecution of his westward journeyings. 

The gale which brought these disasters was a severe one. Three 
vessels, the " Barque," the " Rescue," and the whaler " Georgianna " 
were anchored near each other in the bay September 27, when the 
storm began ; it increased by 11 P. M. to a hurricane. The " Rescue " 
after dragging for some hours, dashed upon the breakers, a total 
wreck ; the " Georgianna " struck heavily on the lee-shore. 

THE EXPEDITION BOAT LOST. 

Hall's boat was driven high upon the rocks, nothing being after- 
ward found of her, except her stern-post ; but before the howl of the 
tempest ended, he was asking of Captain Budington the loan of a whale- 
boat to replace his loss: he was unable to secure one. 

With a party of Eskimos, he visited Captain Parker of the " True 
Love," an old whaler of forty-five years' Arctic experience, and, explain- 



176 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



ing to him his plans and the loss of his expedition boat, received the 
promise of one additional to the whaleboat, which he hoped to get from 
the " George Henry " for his westward voyage. The party were piloted 
through a passage from which no opening to the ship could be seen 
by the woman Nik-u-jar^ who, knowing every channel and inlet within 
two hundred miles of the anchorage, and seated on the loggerhead of 
the boat, with her pretty infant in her hood at the back of her neck, 
steered directly to the spot. Unfortunately the '' True Love," a few 

days afterward, being driv- 
en from her anchorage by 
a gale, went off to sea, and 
Hall was thus disappoint- 
ed both in the loan of the 
boat, and even in the op- 
portunity of sending let- 
ters home. 

His original plans were 
finally arrested, and his at- 
tention was given during 
the stay of the " Barque " 
only to the language and 
habits of the people, to 
observations of natural 
phenomena, and to the dis- 
coveries of the Frobisher remains, and the location of the old attempted 
settlements under that explorer. The story of these is spread out in 
an easy but exceedingly diffuse style in his " Arctic Researches," the 
thread of which will now be followed. 

Within the month following the loss of the boat, the native, Ebie- 
bing (afterward called Joe), with his wife, Too-koo-litoo (Hannah), 
came to the cabin of the whaler. Joe had recently piloted to the Bay 
the "True Love" and the "Lady Celia," through a channel more than 
one hundred and twenty miles long, behind a line of islands facing the 
sea. Too-koo-litoo at once impressed Hall with an expectation of valu- 
able assistance from her, as she as well as her husband appeared to 




NIK-U-JAR, THE BOAT-STEERER AND PILOT. 

From Hall's "Arctic Eesearches." Harper Brothers. 



TElSrPERATlTr.ES IX NOVEMBEK. 



177 



be intelligent and spoke English quite fluentl3^ They had acquired 
this from a residence of twenty months in England. Hannah promptly- 
set herself to learning to read under Hall's teaching. 

Xovember 19, the ice from the head of the bay began to bear down 
upon the ship, and by the 6tli of the month following she was secured 




ESKnro DOG. 

in winter quarters. The temperature was, however, +5°, ana the 
weather moderate aud clear. The temperature of the sea-water No- 
vember 21th was 26°, and of the air 18° ; the barometer read 29*55. 
December 8, the thermometer was at zero ; on the 9tli it was 47° below 
the freezing point. The ice was solid around the ship, the season not 
uncomfortable. December 20, the thermometer read -5° ; on the 21st, 
+21° ; on the 22d, 32° 5'. Rain on the last of these days destroyed 
much of the native covering of tlie igloos (snow-huts), and the ex- 



178 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

traordinary mildness of the season prevented the usual hunts. The 
natives suffered for supplies. January 5, the thermometer registered 
60° below the freezing point. 

hall's first sledging. 

On the 10th Hall left Rescue Harbor, lat. 62° 52' N., Ion. 64° 44' 
W., on his first inland excursion by sledge and dogs. Having now 
acquired some knowledge of the native language, and having the 
company of the two natives just named, with a third, Koodloo, a rela- 
tive of a woman whom he had befriended when dying, he thought 
himself ready for the discomforts of an Arctic journey. His sledge 
was loaded for a team of ten dogs, with a fair outfit of clothing, provi- 




LAMP. 

The mending done by Eskimos. 

sions, and sleeping comforts; his telescope, sextant, thermometer, 
and marine glass; a rifle, with ammunition; and a Bowditch Nautical 
Almanac, and other books. Too-koo-litoo at first led the way, tracking 
for the dogs, which Ebierbing managed well; but, on nearing the 
frozen waters of the ocean, where it was necessary to lower the sledge 
to the ice, the dogs were detached, while the woman, whip in hand, 
held on by the traces, which were from twenty to thirty feet long. 
The difficulty of the outgoing tide being overcome, the party, under 
the same leader, again made some six miles over the ice, and finding 
good material for building a snow-house, encamped at five P.M. The 
fitting up of the igloo — always the work of the igloo wife — was 
done by first placing the stone lamp in its proper position, trim- 
ming it, and setting over it a kettle of snow; then placing boards 
upon the snow-platforms for beds, and spreading over them the canvas, 
containing some of a dry shrub, gathered for this purpose, and on this 



AN IGLOO ON THE ICE. 



179 



the tuk-too, or reindeer-skins; over the fire-lamp the wet clothing was 
hung, to be turned during the night by the wife's watchfulness. From 
the fatigue of the day Hall's first night was passed in sound sleep, 
even after a dinner of raw salt pork. At nine the next morning he 
was ready for a new start. 

The second advance was one of but five miles, at the end of which 
a new igloo was built on the ice, on which, however, a strong gale 
detained them many hours, and threatened destruction to the whole 




STORM BOUND. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 

party by breaking up the floe. On the morning of the third day an 
opening with a snow-knife through the dome of the igloo showed a 
clear sky, but the ice was moving in every direction, and the snow 
very deep. Travel became very difficult, nearly exhausting them by 
two P.M. ; but, on finally reaching the shore ice, the party was able to 
encamp on Rogers Island, alongside of another igloo, where refresh- 
ment was obtained. In the morning a lookout on the bay showed that 
all the ice on whitih they had been camping had gone out seaward. 
They had been saved. 



180 AlVIERICAN EXPLORATIOXS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The seventy of the season which had now overtaken him prevented 
the further explorations which Hall hoped to make, and this first of his 
Arctic experiences outside of the comforts of the ship proved to be a 
sharp discipline. During the forty-three days thus spent he suffered 
severely from the want of food, as well as from exposure. On the 
19th he supped on raw, frozen whale-hide , the next night all that he 
had to eat was black whale-skin, and he longed even for more of the 
blackened scraps, saved for the dogs, but which were swallowed whole 
by a native woman. He kept himself at times from freezing only by 
sitting in bed with much fur around him , and yet he wrote his journal 
with the thermometer at zero inside the igloo, outside at — 25° to — 52°. 
Partial relief came by supplies received through Ebierbing from the 
ship and from a seal caught by him. His first attempts at a return 
to the ship were arrested by his extreme weakness, for the Arctic 
exposure of his life thus far had begun to tell upon him, but on the 
21st he succeeded in getting on board. He considered that his sojourn 
had given him valuable experience ; and looking back on it after- 
ward, he says " he enjoyed it, being as happy as circumstances would 
permit." 

On his return to the "George Henry," the first night was a sleepless 
one, the change from the pure atmosphere of the snow-house to the 
confined air of the cabin bringing to him "a sweating process," with 
suffering. On his recommendation to send two of the crew, seriously 
afflicted with scurvy, to stay with the Innuits and live exclusively on 
fresh meat, walrus, and seal. Captain Budington sent them to the 
friends whom Hall had ^made at Oopungnewing, seventeen miles dis- 
tant. But the two men soon tired of igloo-life, and at their first relief 
from sickness set out to return to the barque : one of them, persistently 
holding on his course and leaving his Innuit companions, lost his way 
in the snow, and after a long search was found frozen dead. 

SPEIXG EXCUE SIGNS. 

April 22, 1861, the extreme severity of the season having passed. 
Hall set out on a second excursion to explore the land on what was 
marked on the charts as Frobisher's Straits. His companion was 



THE DISCOVERY OF FEOBISHEK BAY. 181 

Koojesse, a native well acquainted with the country, who had made 
for him one of the almost invariably accurate native charts. As the 
travel was to be on foot over the ice, Plall's light equipment for the 
journey w^as attached to him by a strap passing over his shoulders 
across his breast, and doAvn the back. 

The travellers crossed Field Bay, thence over a fatiguing mountain 
pass through a magnificent gorge between high rocks, and thence along 
a small inlet of the Countess of Warwick Sound, where, upon an 
abrupt turn, they caught sight of the water. In the distance were the 
peaks of Meta Incognita. The natives here hrst told Hall of the tra- 
ditions, that white men, a long time ago, had masted a ship at this spot. 
This first intimation of the times of old Frobisher, three centuries 
before, was exciting ; still more so, however, was the demonstration 
the day following, tha^ the so-called strait was in reality a bay. He 
had expected to pass through this opening westward, in the prosecution 
of his original plan for the search of Franklin's men ; but before his 
eyes lay the open waters of a bay, its surface dotted over with floating- 
broken ice. A week further was passed in making further investiga- 
tions, mapping the locality, and accurate!}' placing on record all that 
was supposed to bear on Frobisher's Expedition, the time being spent 
chiefly in a sndw-village of '• pure white igloos." 

During the next month a larger number of traditionary items were 
obtained from the natives, in regard to the old Expedition ; chiefly 
from the aged grandmother of Ebierbing, whose name was Ookijoxky- 
Ninoo. Too-koo-litoo was the interpreter between Hall and this native, 
the substance of whose statement was, that frequently in her lifetime 
she had seen on the neighboring island of Ni-oun-tilik, coal, bricks, and 
large pieces of very heavy stone, black, such as no Innuits had ever seen 
before ; that she had heard from old Innuits, that " many, many years 
ago, " ships had come with Kod-lu-nas aboard, two first coming, then two 
or three, and then very many ; that five white men, captured by Innuit 
people, had lived among them till the next opening season, and then 
left the country in a large boat which they had built with masts and 
sails ; and that the Kod-lu-nas had killed some Innuits and carried ofP 
others. The very heavy stones, of which the old woman spoke, Hall 



182 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

at once thought must be iron, and Ebierbing and Too-koo-litoo thought 
so too. They were the only Innuits who, having visited England, rec- 
ognized the bricks, and had themselves seen them. This information, 
drawn from a woman appearing to be at least a hundred years of age, 
sufficed for Hall's determination to visit Ni-oun-tilik. It set his mind 
upon the possibility of valuable discoveries in a land where he had 
already collected a chart of its waters. He was astonished at the power 
of memory and the remarkable way in which the people of the icy 
North could preserve history from one generation to another, without 
a written language. He was also confirmed in the belief that he could 
certainly learn from such people the fate of the lost Polar Expedition. 
As he had now but little hope of securing on this voyage a boat for 
King William's Land, or at least of setting out westward until late 
in the season, he determined to visit the waters which he justly, from 
that date, names only as Frobisher Bay. 

May 27. — He set out from the ship with dogs and sledge, accom- 
panied by Ebierbing and two of the native women, and on this first of 
a series of short journeys to the bay, found some additional links to the 
Frobisher Expedition. He also heard one story, his report of which 
reaching the United States was afterwards regretted by himself and 
others. It seemed to indicate the Avreck of Franklin's ships in this 
region, but was the true account of the wreck of a British whaler. 

During the month of June a second excursion was made, on which 
Hall visited the north Foreland of Frobisher ; and in July, the ship 
having left her anchorage in search of whales, he took up his abode 
with Ebierbing on shore, and with him renewed his explorations of the 
country, finding on his trips pieces of sea-coal, further confirming 
the old traditions. To satisfy himself more rigidly, he dug down into 
the centre of a coal-heap, " around and beneath clods of thickly-matted 
grass, around and beneath stunted willow, and ' crowberry ' shrubs, 
around and beneath mosses, and wherever he made these examinations, 
he found coal. Many places overgrown with grass he examined, dig- 
ging down a depth of several inches and overturning sods exhibiting 
coal at the base, then a layer of sand and coal, then another layer of 
two or three inches of sand overlapped by interlocked roots, whence 




PASSING THROUGH LUPTON CHANNEL. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



184 



AMEKICAN EXPLOEATiONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



extended thrifty grass. The roots of the stunted willow, half an inch 
in diameter at the base of the trunk, pierced down into the sand and 
thence into coal ! On examination of many pieces of coal, bedded — 
some in grass, some in sand, and some in moss — the upper side ex- 
posed to the air, was found to be covered with pellicles of black moss, 
such as one finds upon the rocks of ages." 




INDIAN SUMMER VILLAGE. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



This convinced him that this coal had lain there for centuries ; and 
by other strong indications he was justified in referring it to the 
Frobisher vovages of 1557-1559. During the month of August, he 
completed the survey of the bay he had now discovered. 

An interesting boat-voyage was made on this exploration. He left 
the ship Avith three natives and their wives, encountering at first much 
ice driven in from the Straits, and a thick fog, and in the evening 
reached the entrance of Lupton Channel, through which a strong tide 
was running into Field Bay, "foaming, whirling, roaring, and boiling 



NEW DISCO VlOKIEvS. 



185 



like a cauldron ; " by dint of hard pulling the boat got tlirough. lu 
a tupik on shore, after a good su[)per on seals, ducks, and coffee, 
cooked with wood from the wrecked ship " Traveller," the party were 
closely packed for the night. 

While passing through Bear Sound, Hall witnessed a novel mode 
of securing ducks. Whenever one of the flock which had dived on the 
water popped up its head, the Innuits made a great noise throwing' 
about their hands and arms to frighten the bird down again, and re- 
peating this same noise and frantic gestui-es without a moment's breath- 
ing-time for the terrified duck, until in about seven minutes it came 
to the surface 
utterly ex- 
hausted, and 
was easily cap- 
tured. By this 
process of 
d r o w n i n g 
ducks, quite a 
number were 
secured amid 
the boisterous 
merriment of 
the natives, which was echoed from the rocks of the Sound. 

At a native summer village visited on the route, the women were 
found busily occupied in sewing up skins to make a Ma. The covering 
of the boat was hung over a pole resting on the rocks, everything being 
kept wet, while the women worked their sewing by large braided thread 
of white whale-sinews. Venison and seal meat were hung to dry on 
strings stretched along the ridge of each tupik ; at that season provis- 
ions were abundant. 

In September, the most interesting discoveries were made. On the 
top of Bishop's Island, from which the whole coast could be seen, were 
found the ruins of a house, which had been built of stone, cemented 
with lime and sand, every part of it being covered with old moss, and on 
the north side of the Island was found an excavation, which was called 




THE TRENCH, ONE OF FKORISHKR'S "GOLD MINES. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



186 AJklEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

a ship's trench, for the Innuits said that was where a ship had been 
built by white men. It had been dug out of stone, which was of such 
a nature as to yield to the persevering use of pick-axe, sledge-hammer, 
and the crowbar. The bottom of the trench, which was one hundred 
and ten feet in length, was an inclined plane, running from the surface 
of the ground to a depth of twenty-five feet at the water's edge. 

From what Hall saw he was fully convinced that very many years 
ago, men of civilization did live on this island, called by the Innuits 
Kodlunarn, and that they built a vessel, probably a schooner, there. 
The trench by the shore, on the inclined plane, was such as is used in 
building a ship on stocks ; there were ruins of three stone houses, besides 
coal, flint-stone, fragments of tile, glass and pottery, and large masses 
of iron pyrites or bisulphide of iron. The finding of this and its signi- 
ficance can be gathered from the following facts : Of the one hundred 
men sent out from England with Frobisher in 1578, the majority were 
"miners," sent for the express purpose of digging for the ''rich ore" 
of which Frobisher had carried specimens home on his return from 
liis second voyage, — the ore being supposed to be very valuable, the 
miners made proofs in various parts of the regions then discovered. 
It was some of these proofs which had now been found, and they 
showed that Hall had been on the precise spot of the Countess of 
Warwick's mine. Delighted with these discoveries, and gathering 
up as many relics as he could carry in his old stockings, mittens, 
hat, and everything that would hold them safely, he labelled each 
article and returned to his companions in the boat, on the 27th, 
regaining the ship in Parker's Bay. The company were warmly 
welcomed, as both the ship's crew and Innuits had scarcely expected 
his safe return in the leaky whaleboat of their journey. Hall had 
with him Sir John Barrow's "Chronological History," which gave 
him in substance this account of 

FROBISHER's THREE VOYAGES. 

In the year 1576, by the countenance and assistance of Dudley, 
Earl of Warwick, and a few friends, Frobisher was able to fit out two 
small barks, the " Gabriel " of thirty-five, and the " Michael " of thirty 



frobisher's "fool's gold." 187 

tons, together with a pinnace of ten tons. With this little squadron 
he prepared to set out on his important expedition, and on the 8th 
of June passed Greenwich, where the court then was, and Queen 
Elizabeth bade them farewell by shaking her hand at them out of the 
window. 

July 11, 1576, the ships came in sight of Friesland, rising like 
pinnacles of steeples, and all covered with snow. This island^ ivhose 
position has so greatly/ puzzled geographers^ could not be the Friesland 
of Zeno, but, being in 61° of latitude, was evidently the southern part 
of Greenland. The floating ice obliged Frobisher to stand to the south- 
west, till he got sight of Labrador, along the coast of which he then 
stood to the westward, but could neither reach the land, nor get sound- 
ings on account of the ice. Sailing to the northward he met with a 
great island of ice, which fell in pieces, making a noise as if a great 
cliffe had fallen into the sea. After this he entered a strait in lat. 
63° 8'. This strait, to which his name was given from his being its first 
discoverer, is the same which was afterwards named Lumley's Inlet, 
but Frobisher's Strait was for a long time supposed hy geographers to 
have cut off a portion from Old G-reenland, till Mr. Dalrymple and 
others showed the fallacy of such a supposition. . . . 

Frobisher set sail for England and arrived at Harwich on the 2d 
of October, ' highly commended by all men for his greate and notable 
attempt, — but specially famous for the great hope he brought of 
the passage to Cathaia.' That hope, however, would probably have 
died away, but for an accidental circumstance which had been dis- 
regarded during the voyage. Some of the men had brought home 
flowers, some grass, and one, a piece of stone ' much like a sea cole in 
color,' merely for the sake of the place from whence they came. A 
piece of this black stone being given to one of the adventurers' wives, 
by chance she threw it into the fire, and, whether from accident or 
curiosity, having quenched it while hot with vinegar, ' it glistened with a 
bright marquesset of golde.' The noise of this incident was soon spread 
abroad, and the stone was assayed by the ' gold finers of London,' who 
reported that it contained a considerable quantity of gold. A new 
voyage was immediately set on foot for the following year, in which 



188 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

we are told by Master George Beste, Frobisher's Lieutenant, that the 
Captaine was specially directed by commission to search for more of 
the gold ore rather than for the Northwest Passage. 

SECOND VOYAGE, (15TT). 

Frobisher was now openly countenanced by Queen Elizabeth, and 
on taking leave for his Second Voyage had the honor of kissing her 
majesty's hand, who dismissed "him with gracious countenance and 
comfortable words. He was besides furnished with one tall ship of 
her Majesty's, named ' y^ Ayde ' of two hundred tunne, or thereabouts ; 
and two other litile barks likewise, the one called the ' Gabriell,' 
whereof Master Fenton was Captaine ; and the other the • ^Michael,* 
whereof Master York, a gentleman of my Lord Admirall's, was Cap- 
taine," those two vessels were about thirty tons each. On the 27th 
May (1577), having received the Sacrament and prepared themselves 
"as good Christians toward God, and resolute men for all fortunes," 
they left Gravesend, and after a long passage . fell in with Friesland, in 
lat. 60^°, on the 4th of July, the mountains covered with snow, and the 
coast almost inaccessible from the great quantity of drift ice. . . . 

Four days were here spent in vain endeavor to land, after which 
they stood for the strait, discovered by them the preceding year. They 
arrived off the north foreland, otherwise Hall's island, so called after 
the man who had picked up the golden ore, and who was now master 
of the " Gabrielle." They proceeded some distance up the Strait, 
when, on the 18th of July, the general taking the gold finers with him, 
landed near the spot where the ore had been picked up, but could not 
find in the whole island " a piece as bigge as a walnut," but all the 
neighboring islands are stated to have good store of the ore. On the top 
of a high hill, about two miles from the shore, " the}' made a columne 
or crosse of stones, heaped up of a good height together in good sort, 
and solemnly sounded a trumpet and saide certaine prayers, kneeling 
about the ensigne, and honored the place by the name of Mount 
Warwicke. . . . They now stood over to the southern shore of Fro- 
bisher's Strait, and landed on a small island with the gold finers to 
search for ore ; and here all the sands and cliffes did so glister, and had 



WKECK OF FliOBISHER'S FLEET. 189 

SO bright a marquesite, that it seemed all to be golde, but upon tryall 
made, it proved no better than black lead and verified the proverbe ; ~- 
' all is not golde that glistereth.' "... 

As the season was far advanced and the General's commission directed 
him to search for gold ore, and to defer the further discovery of tlie 
passage till another time, they set about the lading of the ships, and in 
the space of twenty days, with the help of a few gentlemen and soldiers 
got on board almost two hundred tons of ore. On the 22d of August, 
after making bonfires on the highest mount on this island, and firing a 
volley for a farewell " in honor of the Right Hon. Lady Anne Countess 
of Warwicke, whose name it beareth," they set sail homewards, and 
after a stormy passage, they all arrived safe in different ports of Great 
Britain, with the loss of only one man by sickness, and another who 
was waslied overboard. ... * 

THIED VOYAGE (1857). 

The Queen and her court were so highly delighted "m finding that 
the matter of the gold ore had appearance, and made show of great 
riches and profit, and the hope of the passage to Cathaia by this last 
voyage greatly increased ; " that after a minute examination by Com- 
missioners specially appointed, the voyage was determined to be higlily 
worthy of being followed up. The Queen gave the name of Meta 
Incognita to the newly-discovered country, on which it was resolved to 
establish a colony. . . . The fleet sailed from Harwich the 31st May, 
1578, and, on the 20th of June discovered West Friesland, which they 
now named West England. . . . They found the Strait choked up 
with ice, and the bark " Dennis " received such a blow with a rock 
of ice that she immediately sank, but the people were all saved. A 
violent storm now came job. and the whole fleet was dispersed. . . . 
They all, however, arrived at various ports of England about the 
1st of October, with the loss by death of about forty persons. 

XEW" HOPES. 

The investigations which Hall had now made in connection with the 
traditions received from the natives, were a large compensation for the 



190 A^IERICAK EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

disappointment of his first plans. He began to think that he might 
yet hope for the realization of those earlier designs, and that these dis- 
coveries would assist him toward securing the means for their prosecu- 
tion. The whaler intended to return to the United States on the 20th 
of October, but a solid pack being seen in Davis' Strait she found herself 
ice-imprisoned for the winter. Captain Budington expressed his thanks 
to Hall for his discovery of this pack, without the knowledge of which 
he had been about to weigh anchor, and would have been caught in the 
pack without the power of retreat. 

The remaining months of the autumn of 1861 and the winter follow- 
ing embraced the usual routine of Arctic life of the season. Hall had 
opportunities of adding to the traditionary information he had gathered 
on this point of so much historic interest. Accustomed by this time to 
the exposures of an Arctic winter, and having made sufficient advance 
in his use of Innuit words to put questions to the natives and under- 
stand many of their replies, his difficulties lessened, and his occupations 
brought to him increasing interest and value. 

The ship's company were not fully supplied with provisions for a 
second winter, but were made comfortable by the labors of the Innuits 
in their hunts of the seal and the walrus. On the occasions of theatrical 
performances on board, the Innuits crowded in, frequently amusing the 
crew by their performances on the Key-low-tik, and the superstitions of 
the An-ge-ko — customs which will be described hereafter. 

In the middle of December, the thermometer being 20° below zero. 
Hall made an excursion of a week to the point named Jones' Cape. 
He notes a singular incident occurring to his dog-team. " When they 
put their feet into the snow and sea-water, it was like stepping into a 
flood of molten gold, and the phosphorescent light thus produced was 
not confined to the space beneath the dogs and the sleds, but spread 
itself around and continued for several seconds." 

The season was not without an experience of suffering by the natives 
themselves ; several dying from the disease of consumption, and a num- 
ber of their toils and hunts being made without success. They re- 
ceived among them at different times one or two of the ship's crew 
sent to recover their health on igloo food. 



NATIVE HUT-BUILDING. 191 

In the early part of the spring of 1862, Hall renewed his explorations 
in and around the harbor, and upon Kod-lu-narn discovered additional 
relics of the Frobisher Expedition, and the traces of old blacksmiths' 
furnaces and forges. April 1, he had again left the ship in company 
with four of her crew and four Innuits in a whaleboat, having whaling 
apparatus lashed to a sled, which a good team of nineteen dogs was to 
drag. Reaching the native -village Oopungnewing in nine Hours, they 
found some of the whaler's crew living there, and in good health, and 
Hall himself remained there for some days. Resuming his trip he went 
out on the sea-ice, making good advance with a sled heavily laden with 
how (walrus-hide), and at four p.m. rested in an igloo. 

BUILDING AN IGLOO. 

The natives' mode of building these was as follows : — " They first 
sounded or ' prospected ' the snow with their seal-spears to find the 
most suitable for that purpose. Then, one commenced sawing out 
snow-blocks, using a hand-saw, an implement now in great demand 
among the Innuits for that purpose ; the blocks having been cut from 
the space the igloo was to occupy, the other Innuit proceeded to lay 
the foundation tier, which consisted of seventeen blocks, each three feet 
long, eighteen inches wide, and six inches thick. Then commenced 
the spiraling^ allowing each tier to fall in, dome-shaped, till the whole 
was completed, and the key-stone of the dome or arch dropped into its 
place, the builders being within during the operation. When the igloo 
was fijiished two Innuits were walled in ; then a square opening was 
cut at the rear of the dwelling, and through this Smith and I passed 
some snow-blocks, which we had sawed out. These Sharkey and Koo- 
jesse chipped or minced with their snow-knives, while Tu-nuk-der-lien 
and Jennie trod the fragments into a hard bed of snow, forming the 
couch or the dais of the igloo. This done, the women quickly erected 
on the right and left the fire-stands, and soon had fires blazing, and 
snow melting with which to slake our thirst. Then the usual shrubs^ 
kept for that purpose, were evenly spread on the snow of the bed- 
place over which was laid the canvas of my tent ; and over all were 
spread tuktoo furs forming the bed. When the work had been thus 



192 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



far advanced, the main door was cut out of the crystal white wall, and 
the walrus-meat and others were passed in. Then both openings were 
sealed up, and all within were made happy in the enjoyment of com- 
forts that w^ould hard!}' he dreamed of b}^ those at home." 

But from the 22d of the month, for nearly ten weary days. Hall had 
to remain encamped on the main ice off the land, and the natives were 




ESKIMO AND HIS SEAL-DOG. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



unsuccessful in every attempt io secure either the seal, the walrus, the 
white whale, or any game. The only food within the igloo was the 
li'oiv (walrus-hide) with the hair on ; their lamp was without oil, and 
without it they could have no fresh water. The capture of two seals 
at last brought relief. 

Again pressing forward, he completed a lengthened exploration of 
nearly two months, arriving at the George Henry's anchorage May 21. 
The details of this journey and of his survey occupy a large space in the 
volume of his " Researches." His corrections of the charts of the locali- 



NATIVE DUESS. 193 

ties examined have been of value to the whaling fleets, which have 
continued, though with less frequency, to visit them. 

His experience of Eskimo life and forced self-adaptation to it, begun 
on this voyage, seems, strangely enough, to have carried its attractions 
through the second visitation and residence of five years, which is yet 
to be described. His acquaintance with the inside life of the degraded 
and the superstitious, and with their modes of obtaining their supplies, 
will be best portrayed by selections from the records of his later resi- 
dence; what here follows may show his first impressions corrected by 
those experiences. 

As regards the appearance of the Innuits, as he justly prefers to call 
them, without noting their average loiv stature, so well known, even in 
comparison with that of those on the northwestern American coast. 
Hall notes that the women were found generally tattooed on the fore- 
head, cheeks, and chin. The process for this is simply the drawing of 
a soot-blackened reindeer-sinew thread under and through the skin 
by a needle; the tattooing is done from principle; the lines, as they 
believe, will be regarded in the next world as a sign of goodness. 
Neither for the females of this region nor for those around Hudson's 
Bay does he express himself in any commendation of an attractive 
personal appearance, thus indicating a contrast between these and 
the natives of Greenland, of whom each Arctic voyager has spoken in 
praise. 

The native dress for winter is of reindeer-skin ; for summer, of the 
seal. The round jacket without opening in front or behind is slipped 
over the head, is close-fitting, comes as low as the hips, and has sleeves 
reaching to the wrists. It has a hood at the back for covering the head 
in cold weather, or carrying the children (see page 176), and is often very 
elaborately ornamented. The wife of one of the natives had hei^ jacket 
trimmed thus : Across the neck a fringe made of eighty pendants of 
red, blue, black, and white glass beads, forty on each string; on the 
flap in front, bowls of Britannia metal, tea and table-spoons ; on the tail 
reaching nearly to the ground, six pairs of federal copper cents pendant 
down the middle ; and a huge brass bell from some old-fashioned clock at 
the top of the row of cents. In winter two jackets are worn, the inner 



194 



AISIERTCAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



one with the hair next the body. Their breeches reach below the knee, 
and are fastened with a string drawn tightly around the lower part of 
the waist. Those worn by the women are put on in three pieces, each 
leg and the body forming separate parts. 

The full winter dress consists of: first, long stockings of reindeer fur, 
with the hair next the person; second, socks of the eider-duck skins, 
with the feathers on and inside ; third, socks of sealskin, with the 
hair outside ; fourth, kumings (native boots), with legs of tuktoo, 

the fur outside, and the soles of 
ook-gook. All wear mittens, 
though the women generally wear 
only one, and that one on the right 
hand ; the left is drawn within 
the sleeve. 

The mode of capture of the bear, 
the reindeer, the whale, and the 
walrus will be noted in the ac- 
count of the Second Expedition. 
Hall, at an earl}^ period of his first 
voyage, noticed two remarkable 
qualities in the native character, 
which have a strong bearing upon 
their success in obtaining a liveli- 
hood. One of these is the accu- 
racy with which they sketch the 
lines of coast and the ice-foot, aid- 
ing their journeyings ; outlines of 
marked correctness were made for him. A sketch of superior accuracy, 
as endorsed by the charts of distinguished Arctic navigators, will be 
found in the Narrative of the next voyage. 

Of the Innuit sagacity in gaining lessons of value from the habits of 
the animals he says that they observe how the seal constructs its own 
igloo, and model their own winter dwellings from it. 

Sectional view No. 1 shows a seal's hole and igloo with a young 
one lying within and a mother coming up to visit it. The horizontal 




SEAL-HOLE AND SEAL-IGLOO. — No. 1. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researches." Harper Brothers. 



STRIKING FOU A SEAL. 



195 



lines in the engraving, and those across the seal-hole, represent sea- 
water ; the perpendicular lines, ice. By the time the sun has melted 
off the snow covering, destroying the dome, the young seal, for which 
this home has been made by its prospective mother, is ready to take 
care of itself. The season for their building is about April 1. 

To capture the seal the native always needs his dog, whp, however, 
only scents the igloo, leaving his master to catch the game. The sealer 

awaitino^ the seal's blow, for 



IS 



which he has sometimes to watch 
motionless two or three days and 
nights. At the point indicated 
by his dog, he thrusts down the 
spindle of his steel spear, to find 
through the snow the breathing- 
hole of an inch or two in diam- 
eter; then, withdrawing his spear, 
he strikes it again unerringly 
through the snow, eighteen to 
twenty-four inches, to the seal's 
head. The animal dives and runs 
out the full length of the line in 
the sealer's hand, but he soon 
draws out his prize from the hole 
which he has enlarged with his 
ice-chisel. 

When a seal is taken, a few 
drops of water are sprinkled on its head before it is cut up ; if no water 
is to be had, snow is held in the hand until a drop is squeezed out- 
Women are not allowed to touch the first seal of the season, even to 
press out its oil for others. 




SEAL-HOLE. — No. 2. 



FIRST IMPRESSIOKS. 

The Innuits, as is well-known, eat voraciously. Hall says on one 
occasion he was compelled to say to himself : " What monstrous stom- 
achs these Eskimos have." They had been cutting up the krang (whale- 



196 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

meat) into huge slices and sending it to the village for deposit, but all 
day long as they worked they ate. " The quantity taken on one day 
seemed enough for many." Before this whale had been brought along- 
side the " George Henry," they had eaten twenty square feet of the 
raw skin. 

The language of the natives of Northumberland Inlet is a dialect 
understood with great difficulty by natives who come from the North 
and West, and is still more difficult for the people of Greenland. The 
Innuits of Hall's first acquaintance could not count beyond ten by 
words ; by signs, that is by throwing open the fingers, they could go 
further. 

Their religious ideas and observances are chiefly under the influence 
of their An-ge-koe, whose business, like those of the Medicine Man of 
the Shammans of the Western coast, is to minister for the sick, and for 
the community in general. His mode of procedure, when called in for 
the sick or for any case of supposed special relief, is first, to demand 
immediately his pay, and then, with the family around, to begin incan- 
tations or what sounds like a prolonged supplication with formulas 
responded to by the company. The An-ge-ko is employed also in an- 
kooting for success in the hunts, for the disappearance of the ice, and 
for a good season. On more than one occasion he was found to be 
graspingly covetous and otherwise immoral, but is almost universally 
feared and obeyed. The name An-ge-ko was reported to mean '' he is 
very great." 

RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 

Hall's return from this first voyage was now compelled by the re- 
lease of the ship, the whaling season of the year having ended. He had 
acquired some useful knowledge of Eskimo life and language, the 
further in which he advanced the more he hoped to turn it to advan- 
tage on a renewed voyage. August 9, the " George Henry " took a 
final leave of the inmates of the bay, a crowd of whom surrounded her 
in their Kias and Oo-miens, waving their partings and shouting their 
Ter-hou-e-tie (farewell). In his Journal, three months before, he had 
written, " Ebierbing and his nuliana, Too-koo-litoo, will accompany me 
to America, and on a future Expedition to King William's Land. I 




TOO-KOO-LI-TOO, HAI.L, A^TD EBTERBTNG. 

From Hall's "Arctic Researclies." Uarper Brothers. 



198 



AMEEICAX EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



hope, after what I have done here in the North, I shall have no insur- 
monntable obstacle to overcome in preparing for that voyage. That 
the Innuits are still living who knew all about the mysterious termina- 
tion of the Franklin Expedition, I have not the shadow of a doubt. 
What is requisite is to visit those regions, get acquainted with the 
Innuits there, become familiar with their language, and then learn the 
history." The two natives had expressed a desire to go to the United 
States, fearing only that their child might die on board ship ; at an 
hour's notice, with their child and their seal-dog, they were on their 
way to the barque from their hut, seven miles distant. 

After working through the ice for twenty-four hours, the barque 
was fairly at sea. Without any special incident except their falling 
short of provisions and their inability to obtain relief from ships met 
with, the "George Henry" reached St. John's August 23, and New 
London September 13, 1862, — Hall thus ending his voyage and explo- 
rations of two years and three and a half months in and about the 
Arctic Seas. But he was already planning a Second Expedition. 




ESKIMO LAMP. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HALL'S SECOND ARCTIC EXPEDITIOX. — KESIDEXCE AMONG THE 
ESKIMOS 1864 TO 1869.* 

PEEPAEATORY LABORS. — PAPER BEFORE THE A]MERICAN GEOGRAPHI- 
CAL SOCIETY. — FROBISHER RELICS SENT TO LONDON AND TO THE 

s:^^THS0NIAN. — lectures. — plans for the new voyage. — 

SAILING OF THE " MONTICELLO." — LANTDING AT WHALE POINT. — 
FIRST INTERCOURSE WITH THE NATIVES. — FEASTING. — ANKOOT- 
ING. — THE KEY-LOW-TIK. — WALRUS HUNT. — NEW YEAR'S DAY. 
— SEALING. — hall's FIRST PRIZE. — CAPTURE OF A WHALE. — 
WINTER QUARTERS AT FORT HOPE. — HALL's DAILY LIFE. — AURO- 
RAS. — REFRACTION AND PARHELIA. — NATIVE ^^lAPPING. — UNSUC- 
CESSFUL ADVANCE WESTWARD. — FRANKLIN RELICS. — JOURNEY TO 
CAPE WEYNTON. — JOURNEY TO FURY AND HECLA STRAITS. — A 
MUTINEER. — JOURNEY TO IGLOOLIK. — ^T:SIT TO KING WILLIAI^l'S 
LAND. — FRANKLIN RELICS. — CAPTURE OF THE THIRD WHALE. — 
RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 

PREPARATORY LABORS (1862-64). 

HALL'S preparations for his second Expedition occupied a period of 
two years. The labors of those years, by showing the successful 
results of his first voyage, and by the interest created through 
the publication of his "Arctic Researches," secured his second outfit. 
The residence among the Eskimos which followed gave him a longer 
Arctic experience than that of any other explorer. 

The purpose of the first voyage, defeated, as has been shown, by the 
loss of his boat, was but strengthened by defeat. Of this he gave 

* The Narrative of this Expedition., and that of Hall's third, —the "North P^olar Expe- 
dition of 1871," — have been drawn up from the material placed before the author while 
on duty on this subject at the U. S. Naval Observatory. To the official records and corre- 
spondence of these Expeditions then furnished, favorable opportunities offered themselves 
for supplementing some of Hall's Journals by the receipt of his correspondence with his 
choice friends, Mr. Henry Grinnell, Mr. J. C. Brevoort, of New York, and Captain Bud- 
ington and Mr. J. J. Copp, of New London, Conn. For the use of some of the illustra- 
tions acknowledgments are due to Prof. Baird of the Smithsonian, and Dr. E. Bessels. 

199 



200 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

renewed proof, before reaching the United States, by a telegram from 
St. Johns, Newfoundland — a dispatch which began with the words " I 
am bound for the States to renew voyage^^ and which reads throughout 
more like news from an excursionist than from one who had been fight- 
ing his way through two Arctic winters. The fortitude into which he 
had been disciplined will be seen to have shown itself steadily through 
the two succeeding years of working and waiting. 

On his arrival in New London, placing the Eskimos under the care 
of Captain Budington, he made a short visit to Cincinnati. While there 
his letters evinced much concern as to the opinions which the Eng- 
lish people might form from the reports in the press of a hasty impres- 
sion received from him that he had probably determined the fate of the 
two boats' crews of Franklin's Expedition. He had been led into this 
error b}?" a party of Sekoselar Innuits, but promptly corrected it in the 
columns of the New York press, and, afterwards, more fully in a paper 
read before the American Geographical Society, and in the "Arctic Re- 
searches." His apprehensions were that before the first corrections 
could reach England, the error would prejudice the English against the 
genuineness of the discoveries he had been making in the region vis- 
ited. The apprehension proved to have been groundless. It however 
induced Hall to decline lecturing in Cincinnati, and to entertain a new 
idea in regard to the proper disposition of the relics. 

He naturally set a value on his late explorations, and had reason to 
suppose they would interest the English people. He believed that the 
account given by Frobisher himself was so indefinite that, for nearly 
three hundred years, the civilized world had been in doubt of the pre- 
cise localities. Up to the time of this visit of 1861 no opportunity 
had been embraced for identifying them, or for confirming other ac- 
counts which Frobisher had given. The Admiralty chart of 1853, and 
that furnished by the volume of DeHaven's Expedition, still had upon 
them the so-called "Strait," which was supposed to be a passage west- 
ward to the further part of Hudson's Bay; but navigators had always 
chosen Hudson's Straits in passing to and from that bay. Had any one 
attempted the passage through what was laid down on their charts as 
Frobisher's Strait, they must have failed to pass through. He had 



SIR MARTIN. 



201 



reason for desiring to prove the genuineness of his discoveries, and 
he expressed a wish to place his proofs before a committee that might 
be appointed in Lonclon to examine his notes, his relics, and himself. 




MARTINUS FROBISHERUS EQUES AURATUS. 
From " The Three Voyages of Frobisher," edited by the late Admiral Collinson, R.N. 



Sir Martin's name was that of one of the first Englishmen to sail in 
quest of the passage, and it was one of no less fame under Drake and 
Howard, for in 1588 he was knighted for service under the High Admi- 
ral Howard against the Armada. 



202 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Hall's enthusiasm prompted him to say that the age of his relics, 
and the remarkable circumstances attending them, stamped them as 
worthy gifts for Queen Victoria. Barrow had taught him that the 
expeditions of Sir Martin were among the favorite objects of Elizabeth, 
who had shown her favor by throwing around his neck a chain of gold. 
Conferring, however, with Mr. Grinnell, in Xew York, he decided 
to send the relics out to England, in place of exhausting his own 
means and delaying his plans by a visit to London. 

At a meeting of the American Geographical Society of New York, 
introduced by Mr. Grinnell, he made a report, which will be found 
noted in their "Proceedings" of the year, under the title of "An Ab- 
stract of a Paper on some Arctic Discoveries." In this paper, after 
referring to his statements before the Society made two years previ- 
ously, he re-stated in fidl the original purpose of his late voyage to 
visit King William's Land and Boothia, and there spend two years, if 
needed, in gathering materials for concluding in a more satisfactory 
way the history of Franklin's Expedition ; to recover the logs of the 
ships " Erebus " and " Terror," with all other manuscripts belonging to 
that Expedition ; and especially to rescue some lone survivor or sur- 
vivors, that peradventure might be found living with the Eskimos- 
He then gave an account of Messrs. Williams and Haven's generously 
fi'ee conveyance to Northumberland Inlet, of himself and his Eskimo 
companion, Kud-la-go, with his boat, provisions, and stores ; of his boat 
being wrecked; and of his long residence with the natives, during 
which he had ingratiated himself with them, adopting their style of 
dress, living in their snow-huts, and feeding on their raw whale-skin, 
walrus, and seal-meat. 

With some exultation, he said that in September, 1861, he had 
landed on an island which the Innuits and their ancestors from time 
immemorial had called Kod-lu-Narn, or White Man's Island, from the 
tradition that strangers had lived there and tried to escape from it ; 
that on this island he had found remains of stone houses, coal, iron, 
and glass, all covered with the moss of ages ; and that he had visited 
every accessible place named by the Eskimos as connected with the 
fate of the strangers there, " many, many years ago." He added his 



DISCUSSION OF THE RELICS. 203 

convictions that he had thus been the first to revisit the precise locali- 
ties of Frobisher's expeditions, quoting from Hakluyt and other works, 
in which the materials taken out by Frobisher for the erection of sto7ie 
houses and everything necessary for the colony of one hundred men are 
detailed ; and he exhibited the specimens which he had brought from 
the ruins, asking the Geographical Society to inspect them rigidly in 
evidence for or against his statements. 

He then showed that during his two years' northern residence he 
had explored over one thousand miles of coast, making as careful a 
survey as his means and instruments permitted, and proving that the 
water which had for three centuries been called Frobisher's Strait was 
a wide bay , adding, " Inasmuch as I havi failed in the great object for 
which I went out, it is my intention to try again in the following 
spring." 

Donations of the relics were sent to the Smithsonian Institution, and 
a part of the geological collections presented to the New York Lyceum 
of Natural History was the subject of Reports by Mr. R. P. Stevens 
and Mr. Thomas Eggleston. A discussion of another part of the col- 
lection by Professor Emerson of Amherst College, endorsed by Pro- 
fessor White of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, 
forms Appendix 3 of the volume of ''Hall's Second Arctic Expedition," 
published by the United States Senate in 1879. With the relics sent 
to the Royal Geographical Society was a carefully prepared outline 
sketch of the bay, and three diagram maps, one of them the Countess 
of Warwicke Sound. 

Commander Becher, R.N., of the Admiralty, who had written elab- 
orately of these old voyages, wrote to Hall, "I have no doubt of your 
relics being those left by Frobisher's party." His correspondence 
abroad produced also a valuable incidental result, the issue of a new 
volume of the "Hakluyt Series," in which the late Admiral Cdllinson, 
R.N., the well-known Arctic explorer, of the relief ship " Enterprise " 
(see Table II., page 29), has given a rare edition of the Frobisher 
voyages, cordially dedicating it " to Henry Grinnell, of New York, as 
a tribute of respect and admiration, not only for his conduct and gen- 
erous co-operation in the search for Sir John Franklin and his com- 



204 AlklERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

panions, but for the interest he had shown in, and the aid he had 
afforded to, Polar exploration in the present day." 

The Admiral gives an extended catalogue of Hall's relics, which 
were to be deposited in London with the Franklin relics brought back 
by Rae and McClintock. Captain Becher courteously forwarded also 
to Hall the charts, which he might find useful. 

He now entered on a course of lectures for securing aid toward the 
Second Expedition, and for his own support and that of the Eskimos, 
delivering these to large audiences in Providence, Norwich, Hartford, 
New Haven, Hudson, Elmira, and other cities ; exhibiting on his maps 
the routes of the old voyagers, Frobisher, Davis, Baffin, and others, 
and his own recent explorations. The Eskimo family were always 
objects of much interest, Too-koo-litoo showing an unexpected knowl- 
edge of the geography of her country, and reminding Arctic students 
of the native woman, I-lig-li-uk, and her chart drawn for Parry. The 
lecturer could not claim polish or ease of oratory, but secured close 
attention by the tact and enthusiasm of these conversational dis- 
cussions. His friends regretted that under its general rule against pay 
lectures, the Smithsonian Institution could not tender the audience- 
room to which Kane and Hayes had been invited, for he had hoped to 
interest the officers of the government at Washington in an appropria- 
tion by Congress for a new voyage. The proceeds of his lectures 
secured but little beyond the necessary expenses ; they made friends 
for him, but as to pecuniary gain, he " was worse off than when he 
started out." Yet he pushed forward his j)lans. To the credit of his 
sincerity and intelligent thoughtfulness, it should be noted that he 
kept his mind under the influence of the counsels and the example of 
leaders who had themselves passed to success only through dishearten- 
ing trials. In his private note-books are to be found, underscored 
almost word by word, such maxims as these : " Our greatest glory con- 
sists not in falling, but in rising every time we fall." " The question 
is not the number of facts a man knows, but how much of a fact he is 
himself." He remembered that Henry, the revered Secretary of the 
Smithsonian, had said he had " freely given to the world the results 
of his labors, expecting only in return to enjoy the consciousness of 



WHALES TO BE CAPTURED. 205 

having added to the sum of human happiness." And Smithson had 
written, "Every man is a valuable member of society, who, by his 
observations, researches, and experiments, procures knowledge for 
men." 

NEW PLANS. 

On the 17th of March, 1863, an anxiously-awaited conference was 
held with Mr. Grinnell, and Mr. R. H. Chapell, of the hoTise of Wil- 
liams and Haven, New London, at which Hall presented the notes for 
his Second Expedition, the chief of which included the following 
ideas, under the head of his 

" Proposed Expedition to Boothia and King William's Land, for the 
final determination of all the mysterious matters relative to Sir John 
Franklin's Expedition." 

A vessel of about two hundred tons to be furnished and provisioned 
for two years and six months ; the same to be under Hall's command. 
The vessel to be fitted out for whaling, the object being to have the 
whole expense of the Expedition paid by the proceeds of whalebone 
and oil; to go on or before the 1st of June of the present year, and 
make direct for the north side near the entrance of Frobisher's Bay ; 
there to take aboard three or four Eskimos, with their wives, also 
sledges and dogs ; then to make for Hudson's Strait ; thence to Hud- 
son's Bay, west side, south to Southampton Island; thence up the 
channel of Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome to Repulse Bay. 

If whales were found on the way, to secure as many as possible, 
yet no further delay to be allowed than would admit of getting 
into Repulse Bay by or on the 1st of September of the same year 
as starting. 

If it were found advisable under certain contingencies for the vessel 
to proceed at once to other whale-grounds than that of Repulse Bay, 
she must do so after having landed him and his party and outfit for 
land service, to wit, for his expedition from Repulse Bay to King 
William's Land. 

A cheap, portable frame house was to be constructed in the States 
and landed at the Bay, to be used there for storing provisions therein, 
and also as a residence. 



206 a:meeican explorations in the ice zones. 

By establishing headquarters -at the bay, having there a whale-boat 
strongly constructed, and having there also Frobisher Bay Eskimos, 
there need be no hinderance to the force employed on the vessel from 
prosecuting to the fullest extent their whaling business. 

The whole expense of the Expedition to be paid from tlie proceeds 
of the whaling branch, providing the amount warrants it. 

Mr. Grinnell and Mr. Chapell approved the ideas of this plan, but 
at the date named, during the reverses of the war not yet ended, it was 
no time for either commercial house to take the risks of success in 
whaling pursuits. Mr. Grinnell had already expended on Arctic expe- 
ditions between one hundred thousand and one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars, and had met with recent losses. 

After the study of other plans, involving essentiall}^ the same ideas 
of the employment of a ship and of companions on his proposed jour- 
ney, and finding each of these impracticable for want of funds. Hall 
accepted a proposition from Mr. Chapell to go out on a free passage in 
a whaler with his two Eskimo friends only. 

HAEJ. SAILING IN THE "MONTICELLO." 

July 1, 1864, the " Monticello," a whaler of three hundred and fifty- 
six tons register, commanded by Captain E. A. Chapel of Hudson, New 
York, sailed from New London, accompanied by the tender " Helen F.," 
of one hundred tons. Hall's home correspondence was closed on board 
by his acknowledgments to Messrs. Harpers, his publishers ; forwarding 
to them his last corrected proof-sheets of the volume of the "Re- 
searches." Arriving at St. Johns, he received from U. S. Consul Leach 
and other citizens many tokens of kindness and assistance to his outfit. 
The " Monticello " sailed again on the 18th. 

On the 28th Hudson's Straits w^ere entered, and the ship shaped her 
course for Resolution Island. Her delay in passing through much 
floating ice was available for taking the bearings of the prominent 
headlands along the shores of the old Meta Licognita of Queen Eliza- 
beth ; across the strait lay the old Frobisher region. 

The sliip's log of each day for a time showed much the same varying 



g pi 

> > 

i « 



•3 ^ 







208 AMEllICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

record ; for a few hours she moved forward under a favorable breeze, 
or else it was tack, tack, the wind dead ahead; she bored her way 
through the pack, or meeting an impassable barrier made fast to an ice- 
berg. August 1, her iron-plated bow struck so heavily on the hum- 
mocks, that her crew were in waiting to jump from her for their lives. 
Walruses were more than once seen basking in the ice ; undisturbed, 




POLAR OF HUDSON'S STRAIT. 



they raised their ferocious heads as the ship swept by, and then rolled 
over into the sea. 

August 3. — A huge Polar was captured. On the chase of this 
animal by a boat's crew. Bruin soon scented his pursuers, and when a 
mile off, he shuffled to and fro on the ice, shook his head, showed his 
tusks and roared furiously at them ; then, dropping stern foremost into 
the sea, began a swim at the rate of fully six knots. Ebierbing's rifle, at 
the distance of fifty yards, brought him a lifeless carcass on the water, 



HALL LANDS ON DEPOT ISLAND. 209 

and ill thirty minutes from the beginning of the chase it Avas on board 

ship. Some of the measurements of Ninoo No. 1 were : — 

Estimated weight 1,100 lbs. 

Length from snout to end of tail 8 ft. 5^ in. 

Circumference of the middle 7 ft. 4 in. 

Length of front teeth, each 7 in. 

The Eskimo had scarcely finished cutting up this Polar, when he 
was off for a second one which was seen asleep some two miies from the 
ship, and he secured the prize after twelve shots, the twelfth piercing the 
brain. The number of shots is not unusual, a bear sometimes seeming 
to have the fabled lives of the cat. 

Polar No. 1 was imniensel}'' fat, his paunch was empty. The skin, 
the fat, and the meat were saved. The meat was eaten and partially 
relished by the crew; the inwards, except their fat covering, were 
thrown away, as unhealthful. From the two bears over seventy gallons 
of good oil were secured ; in the paunch of the second bear were found 
about six gallons of seal oil. 

The ship's course across the bay was ended on the 20th by her 
anchoring at Depot Island, lat. 63° 47' N. Ion. 89° 51" W. The English 
name of the island had been given to it by Captain Chapel on a former 
Voyage, the Eskimo name being Pik-e-u-la. 

UNFORTUNATE LANDINGS. 

But the landing here was again a grievous disappointment to the 
explorer. He had hoped to do some good surveying work on Marble 
Island, the original destination of the two ships, and perhaps to discover 
the remains of the most unfortunate Expedition, under Knight and 
Barlow, which perished there in 1719. Mate Chester, who accompanied ' 
the party to the island, estimated the weight of Hall's boat and outfit ' 
at only one thousand four hundred pounds. It was twenty-eight feet 
long, with a five feet ten inch beam, and of but twenty-six inches depth, 
when fully loaded. 

The whaler left the harbor on her first cruise of the season, and Hall 
began his five years' Arctic life ; a tent was erected and some observa- 
tions made for position. The game secured on the 22d footed up nine 
petularks and one wild goose. 



210 AIVIEIIICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

He had now the offer of an assistant in a Mr. Rudolph, one of the 
crew of a whaler which had come in ; and as the man had spent one 
winter among the Innuits, was recommended by the mate of the ship, 
and declared himself ready to go on the proposed journey, two or three 
years inland, he was accepted after being fully told the darkest side 
of the experience he might be called to pass through. On the 29th 
the tender '' Helen F." sailed with the party of four for Wager River, 
and the next day the captain landed at " Whale Point," which he be- 
lieved on the river ; by Hall's observations afterwards it proved to be 
forty miles south of the point of the captain's reckoning. This was a 
second and yet more grievous disappointment, and it caused the loss of 
a whole year to the objects in view ; for, had the landing been on the 
river, the journey to Repulse Bay could have been easily made before 
the season closed, and winter quarters secured there with preparations 
for the spring journey. But there was no correcting the error. Reach- 
ing a little harbor, Hall and Rudolph went waist-deep in the water to 
haul the boat " Sylvia " ashore, and a cache was soon made for stores. 
The position of this "first encampment" was lat. 64° 35' N., Ion. 87° 
33' W, 

A single white man as leader, with a companion who soon proved 
useless as an assistant, a desolate region, and winter almost at hand I 
But here was a man of brave heart and of experience. Up the shallow 
Welcome of Sir Thomas Rowe the little craft now coasted, piloted by 
the Eskimo, Ebierbing (Joe), on whom the party were for a long season 
to be dependent for their steersman as well as hunter. Hall wrote to 
Chapel that American whalers who had opened up the fishing within 
the currents and eddies of the Welcome must be good navigators; 
for the " Sylvia," drawing about eighteen inches, often touched on 
her course, and no channel could be found. After an advance of 
but a few miles, Joe sighted a tupik (skin-tent), and soon afterward a 
native came toward the boat, gun in hand. A sharp pull, and a leap 
from the bow, and Hall had made his first new friend in Ouela, a 
native more than once to be hereafter referred to in the story of this 
and of later voyages. 



TRACES OF FRANKLm's IVIEN. 211 

QUESTIONS AS TO FRANKLIN. 

At a tenting-place (Noo-wook) close at hand, Ou-e-la, called by the 
whalers Albert, Ar-too-a (their Angeko), called Frank, and Ar-mou, the 
ivolf^ and their people, were at once questioned, through Too-koo-litoo, 
about Franklin's lost men. Their story was, that years ago there were 
two ships lost near Neit-chi-lle, and that a great many Kod-lu-nas died. 
Some starved, and some were frozen to death ; but there were four that 
did not die. With the enthusiastic desire to catch what he could of 
such news, Hall as promptly accepted this, and his confidence was 
strengthened by the natives pointing out on the Admiralty chart not 
only Repulse Bay, but the track of Dr. Rae, whom they professed to 
have seen. Ar-too-a gave him an account of Ou-lig-buck, one of Rae's 
interpreters, and of his wounds received in the hunt, his story corre- 
sponding with the record given by Rae himself in his expedition of 
1846-47. 

All the natives advised Hall that he could not reach Repulse Bay 
at that late season of the year ; that he would not find any Innuits 
there, as they always spent the winter elsewhere to kill the seal and 
walrus ; and that if he could get there, he would be too late to kill 
any Tuk-too. They would go themselves to the bay next season, and 
then to Neit-chi-lle, and if he would spend the winter at Noo-wook, 
they would give him all the Tuk-too, walrus, seal, and bear-meat 
needed, reindeer furs, and assistance. He decided of necessity to stay 
with them. 

The 15th of September was a day of gale. The Welcome was 
lashed into fury by the north wind, which drove far inland everything 
like game. The moon was full at 9h. 9m. GreenAvich time. On the 
going down of the sea. Hall and his new man Friday, with ^r-too-a 
and Joe, went out in swift pursuit of an ook-gook QPJioca harhatd) 
which had been seen drifting down, seemingly asleep; but the cautious 
seal waked at the sound of the oars and disappeared. 

With the rapid change of the season the nights began to be cold, 
ice was forming on the fresh-water lakes, and there were signs of an 
approaching snow-storm. A sheltered place for the tupiks became a 



212 



AMEPvICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



necessity. On the 18tli Hall's journal says : " It has been moving-day 
with us, and an interesting picture might have been seen, — the Innuits 
and the two Kod-lu-nas, with packs on our backs, tramping along 
towards our destined new home. Old Mother Ook-bar-loo had for her 




SXOW-PARTELDGES. 

pack a monstrous roll of reindeer-skins, which was topped with kettles 
and pans and various little instruments used by Innuits in their do- 
mestic affairs, while in her hand she carried spears and poles and other 
things that need not be mentioned here. Ar-too-a had for his pack 
his tent and pole, his gun arid et ceteras in his hand. His wife had 
a huge roll of reindeer-skins and other things, much of the character 
of Ook-bar-loo's. The dogs had saddle-bags, and topping them were 



A "COMFORTABLE HOME. 



213 



pannikins and such varied things as are always to be found in In- 
nuit use. Ebierbing had for his pack our tent and some five or six 
tent-poles, while in his hands he carried his gun. Charley Rudolph 
had a large roll of reindeer-skins, carrying also numerous tent- 




poles. Too-koo-litoo had deerskins, and in her hands various things. 
I carried on my shoulder two rifles and one gun, each in covers ; 
under one arm my compass tripod, and in one hand my little basket, 
which held my pet Ward chronometer, and in the other my trunk 
of instruments." 



214 



AMEEICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



The Innuits then brought out from their deposits the reindeer-skins 
cached in the summer. The weight of these, borne by the women, 
was as much as one hundred j^ounds to each. At their distribution 
the women were allowed to choose the best. 

The ground was now covered with snow, the lakes bore a man's 
weight, and the heavy weather on the coast drove the game inland. 
Flocks of the Ptarmigan (snow-partridges) were found after each 
snowfall. In midwinter, at a distance of ten feet, they are scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the snow. 

By the help of Ou-e-la, Armou, and Joe, Hall established himself in 
his first winter quarters. He says of his igloo, of ten feet only in 

diameter, that his house 
was a building without a 
corner and without props 
or braces ; the wall, roof, 
and door a unity, yet so 
strong as to defy the pow- 
er of the fiercest Arctic 
gales. Two months after- 
ward he wrote : " I ex- 
changed tent for snow- 
house, and have been all the time as comfortable as I ever have been in 
my life. You would be quite interested in taking a walk through my 
winter quarters; one main igloo for myself and Eskimo friends, and 
three others, all joined to the main, for storehouses. A low, crooked 
passage-way of fifty feet in length leads into our dwelling." 

From this date until near the first day of the year following, his sup- 
plies of food and his visits and intercourse with the natives continued 
to be without serious discomfort. His experience, however, even of 
this first season began to correct some of the impressions of the quali- 
ties of the Eskimos, on whom, in his first volume, he frequently be- 
stows the epithets "noble and generous," "simple and freehearted." 
In common with all Arctic voyagers he could not, indeed, have failed 
to be offended at the outset by the constant witness of their un- 
cleanly habits, and had written in his notes, two years before, that 




GROUND-PLAN OF HALL'S FIEST IGLOO. 



UNCLEANLY HABITS 215 

when a white man for the first time enters a tupik, he is nauseated 
with everything he sees and smells — even disgusted with the looks of 
the natives. He would see a company of what you would call a dirty 
set of human beings, mixed up among masses of nasty, uneatable 
flesh, skins, blood, and bones, scattered all around ; and, hanging over 
a long, low flame, the Oo-koo-sin (stone-kettle) black with soot and oil, 
filled with black meat, swimming in a smoking fluid, as 'if made by 
boiling down the dirty scrapings of the butcher's stall, while the dishes 
out of which the soup is taken would turn his stomach, especially 
when he saw the dogs wash them out with their tongues before he used 
them. He had added to this that there was no alternative but to sub- 
mit to their customs and be one of them. On this second voyage his 
first patient was one from whose face, by persuasion, he sponged oif, 
with soap and water, a thick coat of primitive soil. 

His companionship at the feasts was now not more satisfactory, as 
regards these native habits. At a general invitation, October 29, the 
entertainment was held in two connected igloos. In one, the women 
sat Turk-fashion on a snow-bench bed, around a huge pile of raw 
frozen venison and tood-noo (reindeer fat) ; in the other, the men 
crowded close together, the snow-walls of both echoing with the Babel 
of tongues and laughter. To begin the feast, a large piece of venison, 
held between the teeth of one of the parties, was sawed off by the 
knife close to his nose, stuffing his mouth full ; the main piece was 
then passed around for the same process by each, and the tood-noo fol- 
lowed suit. Then from a dish of reindeer heads and necks, boiled in 
the blood, each guest took a sup till all was gone ; and when the 
women of the igloo had licked the pot clean, and stuffed the children 
to suffocation, each one scraped the grease from his face into his mouth, 
and licked his fingers. A self-adaptation to such habits, prolonged, 
too, through the period of the five years, seems explicable only in con- 
nection with Hall's own statement, that to keep his health and accom- 
plish anything, he must live like this people. He exchanged frequent 
visits, and soon ate, drank, and slept as did the natives, and he 
wrote that the stronger the venison, even if putrid, the better he rel- 
ished it. The immense quantity of food swallowed by the Innuit at 



216 



AlVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



the feasts, which usually fo^o^Y their privations of the season, were no 
matters of surprise. Like all rude tribes, they were provident during 
the open season, but in a time of enjoyment excessively and thought- 
lessly wasteful. In the month of September, Hall thought they had 
several hundred reindeer cached within a circle of twenty miles in 
diameter, but before December closed scarcity had begun to set in. 

More than one occasion was found for the superstitious business 
of An-koo-ting. On one of these the An-ge-ko (Artooa) entered the 
crowded igloo with three men and an old woman, asking immediately that 




GXME OF CUP AND BALL. 

(Learued probably from the Whalers.) — Smithsonian Institution. 

the light at the table where Hall was seated to take notes, should be put 
out ; the wick of the lamp was then thumbed doT^^Q, giving just light 
enough to make the scene gloomy and cold. Then taking off his boots 
and standing on the bed-place, he made a speech of about ten minutes, 
his hoarse voice at times shaking the dome, and contrasting strongly 
with the musical voice of the women and with Joe's crying out from 
time to time, atee, atee, good, good, go on. Among the antics he dis- 
played, he grappled with two of the strongest Innuits, throwing them 
with seemingly supernatural strength. The chant was low and monot- 
onous, while the grim, swarthy faces of the audience, spectrally illumi- 
nated by fitful beams of the lamp, and their dark bodies swaying awk- 



INNUIT AlVIUSEMENTS. 



21T 



wardly to and fro and keeping time with the barbarous music, made up 
a wild and unearthly scene. Not one of the natives were free from the 
influence of the rite, Joe and Hannah not excepted. The tribe showed 
the natural love of amusement, — checkers, dominoes, and the cup and 
ball being their favorite games. 

A serio-comic diversion was their performance on the Kej^-low-tik, 
the only musical instrument found among them. The drum is made of 
a piece of deerskin stretched over a hoop made of wood or bone from 
the fin of a whale, by the use of a strong braided cord of sinew passed 
around a groove on the outside. The instrument weighs about four 
pounds. The Ken-toon or wood- 
en drumstick is ten inches long, 
and three in diameter. 

"When the Key-low-tik is 
played the performer holds the 
drum handle in the left hand, 
and strikes the edge of the rim 
opposite to that over which the 
skin is stretched. He holds the 
drum in different positions, but 
keeps it in a constant fan-like 
motion by his hand and by the blows of the Ken-toon^ struck alter- 
nately on the opposite sides of the edge. Skilfully keeping the drum 
vibrating on the handle, he accompanies this with grotesque motions 
of the body, and at intervals with a song, while the women keep up 
their own Innuit songs, one after another, through the whole per- 
formance. 

At the first exhibition which Hall witnessed some twenty-five men, 
women, and children — all who could leave home — assembled to see 
the skill of the performers who would try the newly-finished instrument. 
As usual the women sat on the platform, Turk fashion ; the men, be- 
hind "them, with extended legs. The women were gayly dressed. They 
wore on each side the face an enormous pig-tail, made by wrapping 
their hair on a small wooden roller a foot in length, strips of reindeer 
fur being wrapped with the hair. These were black and white for 




KEY-LOW-TIK AND KEN-TOOX. 



218 AINIERICAN EXPLOITATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. / 

those who had sons, and black only for those who had none. Shining 
ornaments were worn on the head, and on the breast they had Masonic- 
like aprons, the groundwork of which was of a flaming red color, orna- 
mented with glass beads of many colors. The women thus presented 
a pleasing contrast with the dark visages of the men in the background ; 
while their naked infants were playing here and there in a mother's lap 
or peering out from their nestling-place in the hood. 

Ook-bar-loo, Jr., was the first performer. This young man was a 
son of Ever-at, named in Parry's narrative of his second voyage as 
helping to drav/ one of his charts. When he tired, the women struck 
up a song for the second performer ; then stripping off their jackets to 
be naked from their loins up, the men alternately dealt each other's arms 
such fearful blows that Hall thought their very bones must be broken, 
and seemed to feel his own shoulders ache. The one who had played 
the Key-low-tik the longer, now struck his blows without mittens, and 
Ook-bar-loo ere long gave signs of surrender. The times varied from 
ten to thirteen minutes each. 

Ar-too-a, Ar-mou, and Ou-e-la followed as performers at short intervals, 
one of them making as high as one hundred and sixty strokes in a minute 
with the Ken-toon ; when Nu-ker-zhoo, getting his hand under the Key- 
low-tik, and dealing rapid blows first on one edge and then on the other, 
by this jugglery kept it vibrating in the air, and brought out from it the 
same sounds as when played in the usual way. Hall, being then called 
out by the house, tried his hand, but in less than three minutes the 
Key-low-tik was on the floor, his arm and wrist aching from the weight, 
and the whole igloo convulsed with laughter. Joe was called for, but 
was too weak from recent sickness to perform. Before this part of the 
exhibition closed, the performers showed up the differences in playing 
as practised by the neighboring tribes. 

The meeting now changed its character. Ook-bar-loo, when he re- 
sumed playing, instantly extinguished the lights, leaving only the dim 
moon to creep in through the fresh-water ice window of the igloo. He 
then commenced his talk with the spirits, accompanied by clapping of 
hands, jumping up and down, sideways and forward, and then backing 
out from the igloo and returning. During all this an-koo-ting one and 



HALL AN-KOO-TED. 



219 



another of the audience kept repeating '' words which seemed not un- 
like those of a penitent giving in his experience at a revival meeting." 
The entry into new igloos in November was celebrated by like per- 
formances. The An-ge-ko made use of three walrus spears, one of 
which he thrust into the wall of the snow-house, and then having^ a 




PLAYING THE KEY-LOW-TIK. 

wrestling match with four men on the outside, and coming again into 
the central igloo, he commanded the lanips to be relit, and showed the 
points of his spear covered with blood. This he licked off and then 
began his incantations, addressing first, with head erect, the great 
Power above, and then wilh his head on the floor the spirit below. 

In a time of sickness, in which Hall suffered from the breaking out 
of boils, he had been prevailed on to be himself an-koo-ted^ and had con- 
sented to obey the An-ge-ko's order that he should never again wear 



220 A^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

certain garments, but should burn them. So far as a consenting to like 
seemingly harmless decrees his notes show that he subjected himself to 
their wishes. When he had expressed a desire for a change of food from 
walrus-meat, he received the solid frozen head and neck of a reindeer; but 
as to put this on the floor, or among the other kinds of meat on the 
platform would have prevented the catching of another walrus through- 
out the year, or, perhaps, of taking any more, he had to cut this up, 
watching closely that every chip flew westward and not one on the floor, 
and he then ate it soaked in rancid and stinking seal-oil, Innuit customs 




SEK-KOOXS. 

Skin-scrapers, half size, deposited at the Smithsonian. 

forbidding the use of any other. The neck only could be used, not the 
head until after the walrus season ; still he said that he had gotten 
so far along in Innuit taste as to like this very much ; but a very 
short time after, on receiving seasonable supplies from the whaling 
ship, he wrote : "What a glorious supper we had to-night. A change 
now and then in- his food is what a white man likes. Even an Innuit 
loves civilization food." 

A more pleasing experience was that of observing the Innuit prepar- 
ation of the reindeer skins for dresses and bed-coverings; in this the 
women assisted the men. The processes were, first to scrape the skin 
by an instrument called sek-koon, a rough tool about six inches long 
including the handle, made of a peculiar kind of whet or oil stone, 



A WALRUS-HUNT. 221 

or else of a musk-ox or reindeer bone, or of sheet-iron. The second 
step is to dry the skins thoroughly ; the third to scrape again with 
sek-koons, taking off every bit of the flesh ; the fourth to wet the flesh 
side and wrap it up for thirty minutes, and then again scrape with the 
sek-koon ; which last operation is followed by chewing the skin all over, 
and again scraping and cross-scraping with the instrument. These 
laborious processes Hall describes as resulting " in the breaking of the 
skin, making the stiff hide soft-finished like the chamois-skin." The 
whole work is often completed within an hour. 

The following account of a walrus-hunt is one of several like notices, 
largely condensed from the journals : — 

At eight in the morning Hall left his igloo, leading by a long trace- 
line one of the large dogs which were to be employed in dragging the 
walrus home ; several other dogs were led by the Innuits, but by far 
the larger number were allowed to run loose, preceding or following 
the hunters. The distance to the walrus-grounds had been for some 
time constantly increasing as the land-floe widened, and the animals, 
accordingly, shifted their feeding-grounds to the new ice or to the 
fissures near its edge. Having crossed the half-mile belt of very rough 
ice near the coast, and advanced about six miles. Hall came to this 
edge. A breeze from the north was drawing the floe to the southward 
at the speed of a quick walk, and as it pressed heavily on the edge of the 
fixed ice, the noise was so terrible that he was at times forced to draw 
himself back several paces from the point to which he had ventured. 
For scores of miles to the north and south, the drifting floe was grind- 
ing its uneven face against the firm but jagged front on which he stood. 
Mounting a high ridge, he saw, as far as the eye could reach seaward 
and up and down the Welcome, a boundless field slowly moving on- 
ward toward the south, but crushing to atoms miles and miles of mass- 
ive ice ; now rearing up mountains on mountains, now ploughing up 
acres into high ridges. 

Ou-e-la, who had joined him, was unable to reach a large walrus, 
which rose in a small water space five fathoms off, for the "squeezed, 
rolling, craunching mass " was working between the floes. He gave a 
quick signal to those on the drifting floe, and Ar-mou and Ar-too-a ran 



222 A]VrEIlICAN EXPLORATIONS LN" THE ICE ZONES. 

rapidly toward the walrus ; but just as Ar-mou had his harpoon raised, 
the animal disappeared in the water. Hall and Ou-e-la then directed 
their steps toward the loose pack which the others had already gained, 
to reach w^hich the sharp eye of the Innuit quickly discovered the only 
possible crossing. A quick run, a few steps over sludge and powdered 
ice, a leap from this timibling block to that one, and a final leap to the 
driving floe, brought the two safely over. Walruses could now be 
seen in every direction ; some butting up ice fragments from the solid 
main ; some with their heads through the butted holes ; some with a 
large part of the body above the ice. The hunters were busily at work. 
In one direction two Innuits were under full run for the same blowing 
walrus, the dogs running around them. All at once these hunters 
stopped, for the animal had taken the alarm and gone down. In an- 
other direction an excited group were seen, one throwing the lance, 
another holding on a line, one jumping this way and another that, — 
for a walrus appeared to be a secured prize. With some difficulty Hall 
gained this spot, but found only one Innuit remaining, while the red- 
dened ice and the hole showed a severe conflict. Shoo-she-ark-nook 
had harpooned a very large walrus, and he and Ebierbing (Joe) had 
lanced it until it was almost dead. The harpoon, however, slipped out 
and the animal escaped, Joe losing his lance-head. 

An extensive floe of the " walrusing ice " was now seen shooting 
over the ice on which they stood, and advancing from the north at the 
speed of a moderate walk ; its thickness was two inches, the same as 
that on which they stood. They were two miles from the land-floe, 
upon ice which bent like leather at every step, often yielding two or 
three inches without a fracture, and it would not do to remain at rest 
on such ice. They were compelled to be constantly in motion as the 
situation demanded. 

Hall hastened to a second group of Innuits, who were as busily occu- 
pied as the first, and in a few moments found himself pulling away with 
others on a line which was fast to a large walrus. After a few pulls, 
the half-killed animal came up in a flouncing, tumbling way. He was 
furiously mad, for he had not only been harpooned but lanced and lanced 
again and again, so that at every blow, quarts of thick dark blood were 



hall's sight of a walrus. 



223 



thrown up, scattering itself about, painting the ice, the dogs, and the 
party with a crimson hue. Looking on the scene, Hall wrote : 




A WALEUS-HUNT. 

"What a horrible-looking creature a walrus is, especially in the face ! 
It looks wicked, detestably bad. Indeed, a devil could not have a more 
repulsive look to Turk or Christian. A hard death did this one die. 
He fought desperately, but steel and sinewy arms, under the control of 



224 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



cool courageous hearts, finally conquered. As often as lie came up to 
blow, he was met by the lance of the harpooner, who thrust it quick 
and deep into the heart and churned away until the walrus withdrew 
by diving under the ice and flippering away to the length of the line. 
Then, at each new appearance, he would fasten his long ivory tusk 
(one had been broken off, probably in some fight) upon the edge of the 
ice, and turning his eyes around would spend his fury on the first of his 
enemies who approached. He then again flippered back, and, as the 

uplifted lance was poised, moved violently 
forward and upward, throwing forward 
his head with a circling sweep, as if to 
drive his tusk to the very heart of his 
assailant. 

" What a terrible blow a walrus can deal 
with his head and tusks ! When he came 
up to breathe, which he did several times 
through different holes, resting with his 
tusk hooked on to the edge of the ice, at 
every breathing he expelled through his 
white-walled mouth a frightful stream of 
hot life-blood, and as the hungry dogs 
rushed up fearlessly to the very fountain 
whence the luscious, savory gore issued, 
the dying walrus quickly raised his head 
and struck it forward with tremendous 
force, though to little purpose, as the dogs were too quick dodging 
the blows. Shoo-she-ark-nook at last cut a gash in the neck with his 
peloud (long knife) and thrust the point into the very marrow of the 
spine." 

A fresh opening was now made in the ice, and to this the carcass 
was towed. Then the line made fast to the tough skin on the nose 
was taken to the point of the hummock five fathoms distant, and back 
again through a hole in the same tough skin. With this purchase, five 
of the party pulled away on the line, gradually sliding the carcass upon 
the ice. It weighed about two thousand two hundred pounds. 




A WALRUS HEAD. 



From the shipping-house of Williams & Haven, 
New London. 



NEW year's day. 225 

This done, each Innuit sprang to the task of cutting open the car- 
cass from head to tail, that it might cover as large an area as possible 
on the ice; yet the moment they commenced to haul up, the ice began 
to bend, and by the time the walrus was disembowelled, the water cov- 
ered it six inches deep. He was now cut up, longitudinall}^, into three i 
parts, Avithout being skinned, and while this cutting was going on, the 
dogs acted like so many devils, and it was impossible, even with a spear, 
to keep them away from the blood and flesh. The backbone, the lights, 
and a small j)ortion of the entrails only were thrown away. The edges \ 
of the longitudinal parts w^ere then placed together by lines, to give 
each mass a rounded shape. 

The paunch accidentally fell in the water, disappointing Hall, who 
was thinking of a clam-feast. He had expected to find the paunch well 
filled, as usual, with clams, clean of their shells^ and says that rarely is 
any part of a shell larger than a dime found within the animal. Hav- 
ing often picked up a single shell close by a walrus-hole, he believed 
that the habit of the animal is to dig but one clam at a time, and 
then come up to blow and expel the shell. He wonders how it opens 
the clam so skilfully as not to fracture the shell. 

The homeward journey was attended with the usual troubles in 
crossing fissures and regaining the land-floe, but at 4.30 p.m. the party 
reached the igloos. The dogs, divided into three teams, drew the wal- 
rus-rolls, which slid along over the rough ice more readily than a sled. 
The supply of provisions from this animal and from the reindeer 
deposits visited as occasion required, sufficed for Hall and his friends 
through the remainder erf the year. 

January 1, 1865, was a day of gale and drift ; the day following Hall 
celebrated as New Year's Day. He hoisted the flag on his own igloo, 
and set a table for his native guests, twenty-five feet in length ^extend- 
ing into the huts of Ou-le-a, Ar-mou, and Nu-ker-zhoo. It was made of 
sea-chests, and its seats were snow-blocks cushioned with deerskins. 
He treated to vegetable and pemmican-soup, and sea-bread with coffee, 
isinglass jelly, and raisins for dessert ; and his twenty-one grown 
persons, when rising from the table, put their hands over the places 



226 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



where they had stowed the good things and cried out " Good, very- 
good ! " Giving notice through Joe that he had a speech to make, he 
endeavored to impress them with his confidence that he expected them 
to go with him next spring to Neit-chi-lle. Too-koo-litoo told him that 
they were all much pleased. 

But within a few days he had reason to apprehend that his confi- 
dence rested on a frail basis, for he learned that the larger number of 




NEW TEAR'S DAY IGLOO. 
I, entrance ; II, central igloo ; B, bed platform; F, floor; L, lamp. 

this people were expecting to visit again the whalers in the bay, and 
remain there too long to move forward seasonably with him in the 
spring. His journal says, " Innuits are a strange people to deal with ; 
a white man to get along with them must have the patience of a Job." 
He must go down himself with a small party only to the ships. 

Well supplied with venison and walrus-meat and blubber and rein- 
deer furs for trafiic, his party of seventeen left their igloos on three 
sledges, drawn b}^ twenty-two dogs, the thermometer registering 72** 
below freezing point. Following mostly the southward track of a 



IGLOO BUILDING ON A JOURNEY. 



227 



former visiting party, they spent their first night in one of its old 
igloos, seventeen miles from Noo-wook, finding it necessary first to 
clear out the snow-drifts and build two smaller snow-huts. 

The work upon these is thus described: '^ While one of Ou-e-la's 
wives shovelled out the snow-drift from the main hut, the other in- 
creased the thickness of its walls by banking up more snow on the 
outside. Hall's offered assistance to the women in this work of using 




GROUND-PLAX OF IGLOO BUILT OX A JOURXEY. 



the por-kin (snow-shovel) was refused by the husband. The drift 
being thrown out of the way, Ou-e-la then entered and made a bed 
platform on each side of the igloo, dividing two by a trench a foot in 
depth. 

The women and children having then crowded in, made up the beds 
by spreading over the platforms their furred deerskins, and lit the 
three fire-lamps to melt snow for the thirsty. The men on entering 
carefully beat their jackets and kodlin (outside breeches), with their 
arrow-tars^ to prevent the warmth of the igloo during the night from 



228 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

melting the snow upon them ; for if it again froze upon them it would, 
make the garments heavy as well as cold. This thorough beating 
required a full half hour. The temperature within the hut, under the 
influence of the lamps and of the crowd, quickly rose from 41°, but 
was again lowered by the venison in the trench, wdiich, when first 
brought in, smoked as if on fire. To prevent the tongue and lips from 
being frozen at the first taste of the meat, it was held, for a few mo- 
ments in mittened hands, and breathed upon, the children's share being 
kept awhile in their parents' mouths. At 9 p.m. the whole party 
huddled together for the night, some compelled to sit upright through 
the long hours of sleep. Seventeen breathers were sealed up, with a 
large snow-block, in a hut but ten feet in diameter ! On opposite sides 
of the trench, nijie were on the platform and eight on the other ; every 




AKROWTAE, SNOW-BEATEK. 

one, Innuit fashion, having the head toAvard the trench. In the morn- 
ing, between the hours of three and four, the men waked, ate a quantity 
of deer-meat, smoked, and again went to sleep. At five, the whole 
party were amused to find that the lamp-smoke had covered them 
with soot. Hall waked with " a severe headache from the excess of 
carbonic acid gas, generated by the three fire-lights and seventeen 
people." At the close of a second day's journey of twenty-six miles, in 
the igloo next built, slabs of frozen walrus-hide w^ere hung on spears 
crosswise near the top of the hut, and from these slabs, partially thawed 
by the fire-lamps, the dogs were fed. On the evening of the sixth day, 
a welcoming signal from the mast of the " Monticello " caught the eye. 
A month was now spent willingly among the ofiicers and crews of 
this whaler and those of four others anchored near. The natives relish- 
ing their stay yet the more, left Hall but half his number of helpers 
for his return to Noo-wook ; he had failed to get the promise of a dog- 
team for his spring journey, and on his return trip he was limited by 
his native friend the guide and sled-owner, to the unpalatable food of 



COLD AND riUNGER. 229 

the walrus-hide. The same native, Shoo-she-ark-nook, also showed signs 
of insincere dealing, in his attempted persuasions to his companions to 
leave the white man, and in his appropriating to his own use some 
articles from Hall's igloo. Confidence could not well be> maintained, 
and yet the kodluna was wholly dependent on this uncertain people. 

The severity of the cold, and the consequent shortening of pro- 
visions, now began to prove very serious. Seal-hunts were rarely 
successful, and the want of blubber for light and heat gave great 
uneasiness. The journal of March 14 says: ''How cheerless is our 
igloo! The moss-wick of our lamp, which, when we have our full 
supply of blubber, gives a continuity of tiame of two feet six inches, 
is narrowed down to a simple wick-point, and makes the gloom more 
dismal than total darkness. Long and cast-down faces are now faintly 
seen, that otherwise would be veiled from us. Our huts are sad, our 
voices almost hushed ! But away, away, thou fiend of Despair ! This ■■ 
is no home for you. We are the children of Hope, Prayer, and Work. 
God is our Father, and better times will come." They came in the 
beginning of May only, when, after nine weary months from the time 
of his first landing, Hall found himself encamped on the Wager River, 
on which he had hoped to be set ashore from the whalers. The last 
days of April had put his party into huts, on the ice of the river in 
lat. 65° 19'. The temperature was still as low as 42° below freezing 
point. 

But sealing now began to be successful. Nu-ker-zhoo with one 
stroke harpooned a mother and her pup ; five more seals were the next 
prize ; and Hall, amid the congratulations of the natives, made his 
own first capture. He had learned some of the Innuit stratagems, and 
with their help put them in play. Going out with Nu-ker-zhoo on his 
hunt, he had watched for some hours with him, and afterwards on 
another hunt with Ebierbing. Nu-ker-zhoo's watch was a marked one. 
At a seal-hole three miles out from the shore, where he had discovered 
a seal-hole, he had built for his protection from the wind a snow- 
wall, five feet in diameter and five feet high on the north, — a foot 
and a half only on the soiith. Into this hole he ran a whalebone rod, 
which, by striking ice, showed, that some time had passed since the 



230 



A.>IER1CAN EXPLORi^IONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



seal had been there ; drawing out the rod and smelling it, he whis- 
pered, ^^tepid^' (stink-bull seal). Returning the rod to the same little 
hole, he carefully scraped the snow from around the rod, so as to 
leave only about six inches above the seal-hole, and then drew out the 
rod, and placed the end of the wood-part of his oo-nar directly over 
the rod-hole. Holding this perpendicularly with one hand, he used the 
other in packing snow around it till he had returned the ten inches of 

snow over the seal-hole which 
lie had scraped away. Then the 
spear-handle was lifted up gent- 
ly, which left an inch-square 
hole ; which was to be his mark 
and guide for his harpoon in 
striking the seal as soon as he 
should hear it. He then ran the 
little rod down through the 
dome of the seal's house (or, as 
it may be called, agloo^ for it is 
really a small snow-hut), to de- 
termine the depth of the snow 
over it ; for it was on this his 
feet were to rest while watching. 
Expecting to spend the whole 
night in silence, he threw down 
a piece of furred deerskin for 
a cushion, preventing also the 
slightest noise from his move- 

EBIERBmG(JOE) GOING OUT SEAL-HUNTING. .^.gj.tS ; tO kccp his fcct Wami 

and close together, he drew on a short bag of reindeer skin, fur inside, 
and tied his legs together, and wrapped his frock-tail close around him. 
His oo-nar, with harpoon and line, were placed on two pegs a little in 
advance, so that when bending forward he could touch his spear. With 
these quiet preparations he bade Hall good-night, saying that by his leav- 
ing the agloo the seal would think no one was left behind. His precau- 
tions were not useless, for he had failed in a previous watch just when 




APPROACH OF SUMMER. 231 

about to strike liis prize, the wary seal being frightened off by the 
fall of a mitten from his belt. 

On Ebierbing's watch, he had cut down into the snow to satisfy 
himself by repeated smellings that the seal had been there, and then 
he scraped away the outside snow down to the thin icy crust, the seal's 
breathing-hole. Making then a central downward cut, and removing 
from it a solitary hair from his outer frock, lest the seal should " smell 
him quick," he set up over the hole a snow-block, of which about three 
inches was above the snow, for a mark for his harpoon, and passed 
the watch of a whole night, — not an unusual length of waiting, for at 
times he had passed from twenty-four to forty-eight hours on such 
weary work. 

Hall's watch was, happily for him, that of an hour only. He suc- 
ceeded in making a telling blow with the spear, and in holding on to 
his line until the seal, on coming up to blow, was despatched by Nu- 
ker-zhoo's long knife. Hall was the first white man who had caught a 
seal in that country. 

The first fish caught by a new hand, the first one of the season 
caught by watching over an ice-hole, and the first caught in open 
water, are times of joyous demonstrations, in which usually all share 
except those who have been afflicted b}^ death in their families during 
the year. Before the middle of May as many as ten were taken in one 
day, and almost entirely devoured as fast as brought in. Of the qual- 
ity and effects of the meat Hall remarks, that to live upon it alone is 
excessively constipating on the white man, old walrus-meat affecting 
the system much in the same way. Too-koo-litoo thought that the 
reason the Innuits of that region were so dark-colored was their eating 
so much raw seal-meat and blood. It seems, indeed, surprising that 
they can so readily make way with such huge quantities of animals, 
weighing each two hundred pounds and upwards. 

The first five days of June were in marked contrast with the spring 
months. The rapid advance of the warm season had required a change 
from the snow-huts to the tupihs (skin-tents), which were set up on an 
island along the shore of the Wager. The deserted Kommongs, or 



232 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

half-snow-houses, had become untenantable by the snow-drippings, and 
the remains, when broken down, presented a strong contrast to the 
beautiful arched and solid domes spoken of by Hall in the previous 
autumn.* 

The summer months of 1865 were spent by the natives in securing 
the game for their subsistence during the coming winter, the suc- 
cessful hunts of July alone footing up twelve seals, nine ook-gooks^ 
thirty-seven deer, a bear, and some ducks. Compelled to await even 
through another winter his chances of moving westward toward King 
William Land, Hall's chief occupation was limited to such observa- 
tions for the coast-lines of the Bay as his instruments permitted him 
to make. He had further opportunities of witnessing the native ways 
of making use of the seal, the walrus, and the deer for food, and in 
the manufacture of useful things. For making lines from the skin of 
the ook-gook for uses in the hunt, the Innuits cut the skin into long 
strips, which they stretched between the rocks by a block and tackle 
which they obtained from the whalers; these strips, made soft and 
pliable by rubbing and chewing, were very strong for sledge trac-, 
ings and lashings and for securing a walrus. 

To save the blubber of the seals for deposit for winter use in a 
cache^ the natives stored it in seal-skin drugs (bags) made from the 
skin of the animal, unbroken except by a small opening about the 
head. To get the blubber out, the knife was thrust in longitudinally, 
to separate it from the skin, the fore-flipper was jointed, and the seal 
then worked out by the hole made at the head. 

When making the deposits of the reindeer, the custom is to place 
upon and around the carcass the head, legs, shoulders and saddle, cov- 
ering the whole with a heavy pile of stones. When this is done, as is 

* Captain Lyon, in his Journal of Parry's Second Voyage, 1821-23, says of a like 
scene; "I liad several times, in my rambles throngli the world, seen huts which I 
imagined could not be equalled in wretchedness of appearance; but I was yet to learn 
that of all miserable places on earth, a snow village, recently deserted, is the most 
gloomy. . . . The roofs melted into icicles and coated with smoke ; arches broken and 
falling from decay; the snow seats, floors, and partitions covered with every kind of filth 
and rubbish — bones, broken utensils, and scraps of skins — form altogether the most 
deplorable picture, while the general air of misery is augmented tenfold by the strong 
glare of light which shoots through a hole once occupied by a window." 



A WHALE CAUGHT. 233 

usual, in the later part of the season, the whole mass soon becomes so 
solid with ice, that it can be opened only with great force, the natives 
using for this purpose heavy wedge-shaped stones. 

The first opportunity now offered itself for the successful issue of 
one of the important elements in the original plan presented to the 
friends of the expedition in New York in 1862 — the capture of 




CAPTURING A WHAJLE. 

whales, which would repay in part the advances made for the outfit. 
After a number of cruises in the boats without being able to come 
quite within striking distance, August 30, Hall was congratujated by 
all his Innuit friends for the success of the day. With his party of 
men and boys he left the tupiks at four A.M. to hunt a whale which had 
been for some time previous blowing around. His boats, the "Sylvia" 
and the " Lady Franklin," gave swift chase to the westward, but after 
an hour's cruise, during which the whale made several risings, they 
were unable to get close enough, although they came almost upon it 



234 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

when rowing from an opposite direction around an islet. A second 
whale was, however, almost immediately seen half a mile to the south- 
west, when the sails were quickly set, and paddles and oars vigorously 
plied by the crew^s of both boats, " each of which ran down the leg of 
a V, the whale at its joining point." Ou-e-la, from the bow of the 
"Lady Franklin," which reached the goal a few seconds before the 
" Sylvia," threw a whale's harpoon, to which was attached a line of 
twenty fathoms, having at its end two drugs (floats). One of these 
was the forward part of an ook-gook skin, the covering of the head and 
flippers being as entire as when upon the living animal, with the excep- 
tion of the transverse seam ; the other was the entire skin of a neit- 
yuk. Both were filled with air, compressed by the stout lungs of an 
Innuit. Their double object was to indicate where the whale was and 
to tire it down. When Ou-e-la's iron struck into the back of the 
whale, it gave one slap of its flukes, and went below the white, seeth- 
ing waters, at first disappointing Hall, who thought it was now lost ; 
he had furnished Ou-e-la on setting out with a full length of line, and 
was not acquainted with this Innuit use of floats. But while the 
boats lay to, watching for a reappearance, the drugs were seen far out 
in the bay flying over the waters, though with decreasing speed, and 
on the whale's coming up again to blow, it received a harpoon from 
Nu-ker-zhoo, at the bow of the "Sylvia," and Ou-e-la's iron drew. 
The whale again turned flukes for soundings, taking out with him half 
of the "Sylvia's" whale-line; it then immediately struck seaward, 
dragging the boat through the water with great speed, but on its com- 
ing up and blowing, Ou-e-la lanced it from the "Lady Franklin." It 
died within one hour from "the first attack. 

The anchor was dropped from the "Sylvia," the corners of the 
whale's flukes were cut off, its mouth tied up, and the fins taken, one 
into each boat. The towing of the animal to a floe was made with 
slow progress against head tide, but at one p.m. the prize was taken 
into a small cove near the tupiks. Hall had breakfasted on raw muk- 
tuk as soon as the whale was killed. The Innuits, though equally fond 
of the skin, could not join him, because they had already eaten took-too ; 
in obedience to a like superstitious idea, three days must elapse after 



HALL AT DR. RAE'S FORT. 235 

the capture of a whale before any work could be done. On the day 
following, the carcass was cut up and cached amid scenes of feasting ; 
fifteen hundred pounds of the bone, designed by Hall for the benefit 
of his expedition, were securely deposited, to be available on the 
return of the whalers to the bay in the following fall. 



WINTER QUARTERS AT RAE's FORT HOPE (1865-66). 

On the 4tli of September Hall made his twenty-sixth encampment 
on the banks of North Pole River, near the Fort Hope of Dr. Rae. 
This was to be his winter quarters, in which he was to prepare for his 
sledge journey next season to the west. 

From this point also he would make a survey of the bay, his obser- 
vations of the coast-line already made having satisfied him that an im- 
provement of the charts could be made for the whalers. Steadfast in 
the purpose to succeed in the several objects of his voyage, he had 
declined to accept offers from the whalers for a passage home. When 
he now set up this upik the glories of a beautiful sunset were changing 
the Arctic hues of the landscape into tropical warm coloring, and fill- 
ing the grayish cool atmosphere with an unusual brilliancy. His plans 
for the next year involved the securing the continued friendship of the 
Innuits and the storing of provisions for the long sledge journey as 
well as for the winter supply. The larger part of the tribe scattered 
themselves at points some distance off, exchanging visits with him 
during the following closed season. His two close companions, Joe 
and Too-koo-litoo (Hannah), remained in his igloo. 

Excepting occasionally a few salmon or perhaps a dozen partridges 
no provision was available during the severe winter months but the 
deer-meat. To visit the deposits was then a matter of frequency, and 
often a work of severe exposure and labor ; nor, because of the scarcity 
of fuel, was it often practicable to have much cooking done. 

A very large number of deer had been deposited; — in September as 
many as ninety-three, in the latter part of which month Hall estimated 
that as many as a thousand passed in one day; in November fifty more 
were cached; and a few were seen as late as January 27. They did 



236 



AIVIEKICAN EXPLOIIATIOISS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



not again appear until the end of March, when the does that were with 
young began their migration. 

HalFs share in the exposures, labors, and privations of the season 
was again of a severely trying character. On one visit to his favorite 
deer-pass, where he had been accustomed to watch behind a stone wall, 
lie endeavored with Joe to cache five that thev had killed the day pre- 
vious, and within the weary hours of piling up over them rock and 

stone was overtaken b}^ a fierce 
storm of sharp, cutting, blinding 
snow on the wings of the gale, — 
enough, he said, to make one ex- 
claim, " None but devils should be 
doomed to such a punishment." 
Entering the hut on their return 
each seemed to the other and to 
Too-koo-litoo a pillar of snow, 
until for a long time they had 
pounded and threshed their native 
dresses. On another visit he had 
the misfortune to find that a de- 
posit made six feet above the river 
level had been swept by a six-days' 
gale and storm. The main supply 
of food must, however, be from 
these deposits. At times, how- 
ever, his store-house was well filled, 
and a season of feasting ensued; 
and as often, through a failure in 
recovering the deposits, or through the caprice of the Innuits, he was 
placed on short rations. His Journal of January 21 tells the following : 
"T arise usually between seven and eight in the morning, and after smok- 
ing a little, cut a few chips from whatever little choice block of venison 
I may hai)pen to have, and eat the same raw and hard frozen. As eat- 
ing venison alone is dry work unless one has tood^oo, I eat seal blub- 
ber, which is old, of strong color, and of strong old cheese-taste. About 




TOO-KOO-LITOO (HAXXAH). 



hall's food. 237 

four ounces of venison and one ounce of blubber make my break- 
fast. Had I abundance of the former, I should eat nearer four 
pounds than four ounces, for it must be remembered that it takes 




AR-TOO-A DEOWXED IX HIS KIA. 



a great deal of the venison of this country to supply one's appe- 
tite and necessities in the winter. In the neighborhood of noon 
(really there is no particular time of one's taking his meals when living 
as the Innuits do) I dine on what would be called old, stinking, nause- 
ating whale-skin ; hut to a Jiungry soul every hitter thing is sweety and I, 
indeed, find it so. Some of the effects of eating the first few times of 



-38 AISIERICAN EXPLOiiATIOXS IX THE ICE ZONTES. 

this muktuk (whale-skin) are very severe griping pains in the stomach 
and bowels, followed by copious diarrhoea. Nearly every Innuit, great 
and small, in the village, as well as myself, has suffered thus by eating 
this whale-skin. There were seven patients on my hands one day last 
week suffering with the above-named complaint. For my lunch, or supper, 
I pick out the fatty substance of a whale-fin, and eat with it a little 
more of my took-too meat, about the same amount as for my breakfast, 
topping off with delicate slices of raw whale-beef or whale-skin, and 
go to bed hungiy, but as soon as I am asleep I dream of friends and 




INmnT HEAD-ORNAMENT. 



hetter times coming. ... I frequently feast on tallow candles, which 
word I use as a figure for pure deer-tallow (tood-iioo')^ of Avhich I made 
excellent dip candles, and not having use for them have eaten them 
with good relish." 

The work of preparing deerskins for clothing chiefly occupied him, 
with the assistance of Joe, the wife being disabled by Innuit custom 
from working on this, as she was a young mother. Hall dressed him- 
self entirely in furs ; Joe could make for himself with the needle good 
mittens and boots. 

On a visit to the village of Noiv-yarn he learned the death of Ar- 
too-a, who, contrary to custom, had gone out alone in his kia. His 
boat and implements had been found, but not the body. It was thought 
that while spearing one of a band of deer crossing the lake, his boat had 
been struck by the horns of the animal. 



AURORAS. 



239 



On the return of New Year's day a ball was held in his igloo, 
where the men, wearing masks of reindeer skin, kept up their dances 
and the performances of the hey-low-tik to a late hour. Wrestling 
and other gymnastic exercises, such as tight-rope dancing, were 
very frequent in the village. The women at such times were gayly 
attired. 

He spent several days in 
the busy work of surveying 
Now-yarn harbor and its vi- 
cinity, making also the sketch 
of which the cut below is a 
fac-simile. 

A cliff on the border of a 




r 



P 



NOW YARX HAEBOR AND VICINITY. 



Q) neighboring inlet much interested him by the 

Innuit tradition with which it was connected. Ou-e-la's story was 
that years before, two little girls, while playing about this cliff with 
infants in hoods on their backs, had gone into an opening between the 
rocks, which closed upon them before escape was possible. All attempts 
at rescue were unsuccessful, and the poor children, to whom for a time 
bread and water were passed, perished in the cliff. 



AURORAS. 

Auroras were frequent during the months of November, February, 
and March. More than once on witnessing them Hall found the ques- 
tion arising : " Why is it that the aurora is almost always seen in the 
Southern heavens? Why do we not see the same north of us? I have 
seen the aurora at Wager Bay, at Noo-wook, at Depot Island, and from 



240 AMERICAN EXPLORATIOXS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

various places about Repulse Bay, and almost uniformly the phenomenon 
is seen southerly of the point wherever I happened to be. The same 
was true in my previous voyage (1860-62) — that the aurora was seen 
south. In this connection I would state that from all I have been able 
to learn in the many close observations I have made during their dis- 
plays, the aurora is generally not far distant, — oft-times withiii a few 
hundred feet, — and continues within a stone's throw of one's head. If 
an army of men were close together in line, and extended from here to 
York Factory, I am sure each man would see the auroral displays all 
south of him ; and yet the most distant displays would not exceed ten 
or fifteen miles, while the most of the auroras would be within a half to 
three miles of him." 

[Between the parallel of fifty degrees north and that of sixty-two 
degrees north, auroras during the winter are seen almost every night. 
They appear high in the heavens, and as often to the south as to the 
north. In regions further north they are seldom seen except in the 
south. — Prof. E LooMis' "Treatise on Meteorology," p. 187.] 

ISTovember 7, the rays of an aurora shot horizontally to the east- 
ward, in the direction of the magnetic meridian ; and at 7 p.m. of the 
10th a third auroral veil covered the sky, lasting twenty minutes. 

February 6, the passageway of -Hall's igloo was flooded with the 
light of an aurora. On going out he saw a long belt extending far east- 
southeast, and far west-northwest, the centre of it a trifle south, but 
apparently within a pistol-shot. "The rays were all vertical and danc- 
ing right merrily. This whole belt was remarkably low down, — that 
is, apparently not more than fifty or seventy-five feet from the earth, — 
and along the base of it, from end to end, was a continuous stream of 
prismatic fires, which, with the golden rays of light jetting upward and 
racing backward and forward — some dancing merrily one way, while 
others did the same from the opposite direction — made one of the most 
gorgeous, soul-inspiring displays I ever witnessed. The Innuits, nearly 
the whole of whom witnessed the grand sight, kept up, as they always 
do on such occasions, their charming music — that is, whistling. The 
display lasted but a few minutes." The following night something of a 
like display Avas witnessed ; a single streak of aurora shot up from 



AURORAS. 



241 



the south, and in a few moments the whole horizon was alive with the 
dancing fires of the north. 

On the 19th there was a display of aurora upon which the wind 
had no apparent effect, although a gale was blowing. On the 10th of 




AURORA SKETCHED BY HALL. 

March, a wondrous display stretched across the southern horizon from 
east-southeast to west-southwest. " The eastern half was in the form of 
an arch, with vertical rays, while the western half was convolved in 
such vast glowing circles that nearly a quarter of the heavens seemed 
on fire. The eastern half consisted of bosses or birch broom-heads, 



242 



AlVIEBICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 




THE NOS. ON PAPA'S CHART REFER TO INNUIT NAMES OF LOCAL POINTS 

KNOWN TO THEM. 



springing into life and dancing merrily to and fro along the vertex 
of the highest rays forming the arch. To each broom-head was a 
complete nucleus, well-defined, about which the rays, inclined about 



CHART DRAWN BY AN ESKIMO. 243 

forty-five degrees to the east, played most fantastically. One was quite 
alone in its glory, for not only had it the embellishments of its sister 
broom-heads, but golden hair radiated from its head in all directions." 

The journals of November have interesting notes also of refraction 
and parhelia. At 10 h. 12 min. 41 sec. mean time of Fort Hope the 
sun's lower limb was a half degree above the sea horizon ; Southampton 
Island by refraction loomed up from ten to thirty minutes of arc above 
it, although at no other time visible from Hall's place of observation, 
opposite Rae's Beacon Hill. Cape Frigid, forty-seven geographical 
miles distant, was visible, and the coast-lines yet further south, while 
a zone of about five degrees in width from the horizon upward was 
of resplendent colors extending around the heavens, the half circle 
opposite the sun being the more brilliant. At sunset the phenom- 
enon renewed itself. A mock sun on the 30th deceived the untutored 
natives. 

During the last of the winter of 1865 and the beginning of the 
spring following, estrangements from the good feeling which had ex- 
isted between the white man and the natives showed themselves to 
a degree producing disquiet and even some apprehension of personal 
danger. But Hall succeeded in preserving his own equanimity and his 
control over the restless spirits of Ou-e-la, Ar-mou, and their people. 
His chief dependence for securing this was his known connection with 
the whalers, whose return was now again to be expected in the bay, and, 
next to this, his frequent supplies of tobacco. Happily the estrange- 
ments were not serious. Both these chiefs had committed themselves 
and their people to the promise of assistance on his never-forgotten 
journey toward King William Land, and he was dependent on this 
promise. 

Ar-mou made for him a complete chart of the coasts he had^ visited, 
embracing a line from Pond's Bay to Fort Churchill, a distance of 966 
nautical miles — a map rendering valuable aid to the explorer.* 

* In the ''Fortnightly Review" for September, 1880, Mr. Francis Dalton, F.R.S., in 
an article under the heading of " Mental Imagery," says: " The Eskimos are geographers 
by instinct, and appear to see vast tracts of country mapped out in their heads." From 
the multitude of illustrations of their map-drawing powers, I will select one from those 



244 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



FIRST ADVANCE TOWARDS KING WILLIAM LAN^D. 

Hall's occupations at Fort Hope had been the preparing the neces- 
sary provisions and stores for this first westward advance. March 30, 
1866, his native friends Ar-mou, See-gar, Ar-goo-moo-too-lik, and On-e-la 
gave proof of renewed friendship by the loan of their dogs ; this was 
the more pleasing, as during the winter he had almost despaired of 
securing a team, his own stock consisting of "but two female dogs 
equal to one good dog, and two puppies equal to a quarter of a good 
dog." The price at which one had been held was not lower than a 
double-barrelled gun. 

Ebierbing, Ar-mou, and Nu-ker-zhoo, with their families, and the 
young native She-nuk-shoo, made up his party ; all the others had 
gone off from the encampment. The start was made with the wind 
fresh from the North-northwest and the temperature 50° below frost 
point, and the gale became very severe, beating fiercely and directly 
in the face of one who was poorly prepared to bear it from his hav 
ing eaten little or no food for several days. In writing of this, he 
says there had been before him an abundance of such as he would have 
relished, if he could relish anything ; but he had been so busy in writ 
ing and so enwrapped in anxieties that he had little or no appetite. 

included in the Journals of Captain Hall at page 224, which were published last year by 
the IT. S. Government under the editorship of Prof. J. E. Nourse. It is the fac-simile of 
a chart drawn by an Eskimo who was a thorough barbarian in the accepted sense of the 
word; that is to say, he spoke no language except his own uncouth tongue. He was 
wholly imeducated according to our modern ideas, and he lived in what we should call a 
strange fashion. This man drew from memory a chart of the region over which he had 
at one thne or another gone in a canoe. It extended from Pond's Bay, in lat. 73°, to Fort 
Churchill, in lat. 58*^ 44, over a, distance in a straight line of more than 960 to 1,100 
English miles, the coast being so indented by arms of the sea that its length is six times 
as great. On the comparing this chart (rough Eskimo outline) with the Admiralty chart 
of 1870, their accordance is remarkable. I have seen many route-maps made by travellers 
in past years, when the scientific exploration of the world was much less advanced than 
it is now, and I can confidently say that I have never known of any traveller, white, brown, 
or black, civilized or uncivilized, in Africa, Asia, or Australia, who, being unprovided 
with instruments, and trusting to his memory alone, has produced a chart comparable in 
extent and accuracy to this barbarous Eskimo. Their powers of accurate drawing are 
abundantly testified by the nuraferous illustrations in Rink's work, all of which were made 
by self-taught men, and are thoroughly reliable." 



AN-KOOTING. 245 

"The labor of the writing which I have done, without speaidng of 
anything else, has been enough to kill many a man and has nearly 
killed me." 

His route was up the North Pole River, north 50° east. To shelter 
himself from the sharp wind, he held his head at times low down 
behind the load on the sled. 

On the way a new source of delay was caused by the continued 
illness of Too-koo-litoo's babe, for whose relief her Innuit friends re- 
commended and practised different forms of an-kooting. On the 4th, 
the an-ge-ko put a leather strap around Ebierbing's head while lying on 
the bed ; and when he occasionally pulled on this strap the head came 
up, or it remained firmly down, though the lifts were hard ; the raising 
of the head or its remaining steady, indicated the different replies to 
the questions asked as to the future of the babe. On the 7th, the 
babe's health not having improved, Nu-ker-zhoo as " a newly-fledged 
an-ge-ko " entered on his work by pulling the strap around the head of 
one of the women, and while propounding many questions to the Spirit, 
brought up her head when only an affirmative was made. For the third 
operation, on the 8th, Nu-ker-zhoo brought into the igloo a stone weigh- 
ing ten pounds, to which he made fast a string of ook-gook skin which 
he held in both hands, the hand nearest the stone being used as a kind 
of fulcrum as well as for lifting power. Holding on to the string he 
began to woo or call the Spirit, by repeatedly calling out '' Attee, 
Attee ; " lifting or pretending to lift on the stone to determine whether 
the Spirit answered. In two or three minutes it became immovable by 
the Spirit, as they believed, pulling hard down ; and this was a sign that 
any questions would be answered. Some of the questions were: 
Should the child take any more of Hall's medicines? or had Too-koo- 
litoo conformed to her people's customs? Would the child live? An- 
swers to the two first of these were always negative ; to the third it was 
in substance that, if the mother would give up the use of the bread and 
tea, or stay with Ou-e-la's people the child might live, but if the parents 
went forward one of the three would surely die. Such answers on either 
side were indicated by the difficulty in lifting the stone : if the answer 
was no, it had its natural weight only ; if yes, it was hard to raise it 



246 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the least bit. Hall could not undeceive the parents about this lifting, 
though the an-ge-ko's work was readily seen through, and on the 15th, 
Too-koo-litoo in her anxiety took her full share in another an-koot-ing, 
and then in despair agreed to a decree to give away the babe and thus 
save its life ; but, on Hall's remonstrance, the child was restored to 
the mother. 

On the 13th, the long-expected death of the child took place. The 
almost distracted mother, the moment she found it was really dead, 
rushed out of the igloo, pressing the dead baby to her bosom and pour- 
ing out her soul's grief. Her leaving the igloo so quickly was in 
accordance with Innuit custom ; for if this is not done when any one 
dies in it, everything becomes worthless ; in this case it was considered 
that the mother went out soon enough, so that the bedding and every- 
thing else need not be thrown away. In ten minutes she returned and 
took her seat on the bed platform, grieving for a very long time as a 
loving mother only grieves, but at length was persuaded by Mam-mark 
to let the dead baby be taken from her bosom and wrapped in a small 
furred tooh-too skin. Mam-mark insisted that, according to the custom 
of her people, the remains must be buried at once ; but, on Hall's re- 
monstrating and urging that they should be kept till at least the next 
day, a compromise was made, and the child that died at twenty-five 
minutes past 1 P. M. was buried at 6.30. It was wrapped in a blanket 
of tooh-too skin of long fur, tied with thongs, and having a loop in 
it to go over the neck of the mother, who must carry the corpse. 
A hole having been cut through the wall of the igloo for the pro- 
cession of four persons in single file, Hall, Mam-mark, the mother 
with the babe suspended from her neck, and the father following 
close, proceeded to the place of burial on a little hill, which Hall had 
selected. 

Delays from other sources increased, the Innuits sometimes pleading 
that they must turn aside for a musk-ox hunt, and then rest the whole 
of the day following. The average travel was scarcely more than from 
two to three miles per day, the party nearing Cape Weynton on the 
south side of Colville Bay at the close of the twenty-eighth day ; — a 
journey made by Dr. Rae in '54, without a dog-team, in five days. 



NATIVES WHO HAD SEEN FRANKLIN. 



24T 



STRANGE NATIVES IMET. 

A new era in the history of the journey now opened. Ascending a 
berg above a floe to prospect the route across the bay, Hall and his 
two natives caught sight of four strange Innuits, who appeared to be 
sealing some three miles off. This was exciting to each, yet it was 
necessary to be friendly as well as cautious, for some more news of the 
Franklin party might possibly be obtained from the strangers, and Hall 
was ever on the look-out for this. 
He quickly sent back for the rest 
of his party, who hastened to him ; 
but Nu-ker-zhoo felt sure that he 
was looking out on old friends. 
Going forward, therefore. Hall ar- 
rived at sunset near the strangers, 
and encamped there for the night ; 
at dawn of day, his new igloo was 
filled with new faces, and a story of 
interest was unfolded. 

Kok-lee-arng-nun, their chief, 
showed two spoons which, he said, f f^ 
had been given to him by Agio oka 
on one were the letters F. R. M. C. 
The wife had a silver watchcase. 
Too-koo-litoo learned also from 
the men that their people had been, at one time, alongside of " the 
ships," and had seen the great Eshemutta (Franklin). "This Eshe- 
mutta was an old man with broad shoulders, gray hair, full face, 
and bald head. He was always wearing something over his eyes," — 
" spectacles," as Too-koo-litoo described them. " He was quite lame and 
sick when they last saw him. He was always very kind, wanted them 
to eat constantly, very cheerfal and laughing; everybody liked him, 
Innuits and all on the ship ; they on the ship would always do what he 
said. The ship was crushed by the ice. While it was sinking, the 
men worked for their lives, but before they could get much out from 




FRANKLIN RELICS 



248 



A]MEEICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



the vessel, she sank. For this reason Agiooka (Crozier) died of star- 
vation, for he could not get provisions to carry with him on his land 
journey." 

The Pelly Bay men further said that they had for a long time 
feared to go aboard the other ship, but on seeing one man alive on it, 
some of them had gone and rummaged everywhere, taking out what 
they wanted for themselves ; and that afterwards two boats had been 
found with dead men in them. 

Hall obtained from these men a 
number of relics, of which the cuts 
are specimens. But with the ex- 
ception of the news received, and 
of its good indications of what 
could be obtained of greater 
worth when a visit should be 
made to the region where these 
things had happened, there wa& 
little advantage to be derived from 
this meeting, or indeed from the 
journey which had now ended. 

The new-comers did not appear 
willing to be friends ; they engag- 
ed in the old an-kooting business 
with zest, spending their time and 
that of Hall's party in it; and 
they made the party dissatisfied 
with the idea of advancing any 
further that season, frightening them from so doing. Nu-ker-zhoo 
said he was not afraid to go on, but the rest, at last, showed evident 
signs of fear, and it would have been useless to attempt an advance- 
Hall most unwillingly agreed to return, and began to see that a journey 
as far westward as he contemplated was not by any means promising, 
if he was to depend on the Innuits alone. He resolved, therefore, to 
attempt it with the aid of a party of white men, whom he hoped he^ 
could secure from the whalers in the spring of the next season. Stor- 




FRANKLIN RELICS. 

The fish-head crest identifies them as Franklin's. 



ARRIVAL OF WHALERS. 249 

ing a goodly quantity of provisions for such a journey, he left Cape 
Weynton with a saddened heart, and on the 23d of May was safe again 
at his old camping-ground of Beacon Hill. 

DELAYS AT REPULSE BAY, AND MID-WINTER SLEDGE 
JOUFNEY. — 1866-67. 

Two full years had now passed since the sailing from N'ew London. 
The first landing at a mistaken point of the country had cost a year's 
delay, and the failure to obtain trustworthy native help had now 
turned Hall back from his hoped-for advance to King William Land. 
The first page of his note-book, for March 31, 1861, had upon it in bold 
writing: "Now for King William Land! up at four A.M., and get- 
ting ready for a start"; but the notes of May 25, 1866, read : "To-day 
my King William party is ended for the present — disappointed hut not 
discouraged."^ 

Yet he had the full consciousness that at least nine months must be 
passed before he could again set his face towards the west, and that 
he could neither trust the Innuits for an advance, nor be sure of secur- 
ing sufficient provisions and dog-teams for so long a journey. He had 
reason to desire to meet again the Pelly Bay men, for See-pung-er had 
visited King William Land and had told of a Cairn, seen there by him, 
which had been built by the Kod-liMias ; he had also spoken of having 
found papers within it, which being good for nothing to Lmuits, had 
been given to children or thrown away ; he had spent one night near 
this pile, wrapping himself in blankets taken off some banked-up cloth- 
ing of white men ; a skeleton being found near the pile. Hall almost 
persuaded himself that within that pile the Records must be found. 

But for any assistance toward that next journey, he must wait for 
the coming in of some of the whaling fleet of the season. After an 
occupancy of two months in boat journeys for completing the survey 
of the bay, and after another long sufferance of the continued low cus- 
toms of the natives, he was gratified by the arrival of the " Pioneer," 
from New London, and answered Captain Morgan's salutation in tears ; 
the sight once more of a friend from the midst of home friends, was an 
overmatch for all the roughness which had been forced upon his nature 



250 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

by the ignorant and degraded. Several other vessels soon came in ; 
the " Black Eagle " bringing him letters from Mr. Grinnell, and from 
Messrs. Harper, his publishers, a copy of the "Arctic Researches," the 
proof corrections of which he had returned from St. John's. Mr. Grin- 
nell sent him a letter from Lady Franklin, in which she had expressed 
the deepest sympathy in his work. 

He was now successful in securing a second whale, the length of 
which was sixty feet, and its blubber sufficient to yield sixty barrels 
of oil. By September, with native help, he had placed on board the 
" Ansel Gibbs " about one thousand five hundred pounds of bone, to 
be sold on the return of the ship to the United States. 

But the whalers were not to return that season, the meagre results 
of their cruises forcing them to await the chances of a second year. 
From their crews, however, he soon had volunteers as substitutes for 
the natives, and he had hopes of obtaining a sufficient number of dogs. 
With the two Eskimo friends, he again set up his tupik on Beacon Hill, 
Dr. Rae's tenting-place of 1847, and entered with zest into the hunt for 
provisioning the coming winter, and in October, within his igloo, settled 
himself down to his plans and hopes. 

Yet before the first month of the New Year closed, he learned from 
the captains of the four vessels, that they would not permit the Innuits 
to supply him with a single dog for the coming journey. They were 
feeding this people through the winter, and they would need all their 
dogs for sledding blubber and bone, at the opening season, from the 
water to the ships. Helpless to enforce his claim. Hall determined, 
therefore, to make a sledge-trip to Amitoke, or, perhaps, to Ig-loo-lik, 
even in the depth of winter to buy his dogs. The journey might be 
one of more than three hundred miles, but another year could not be 
lost. 

JOURNEY TO IG-LOO-LIK. 

February 7, 1867, in the judgment of the best Arctic authorities 
"two months before any sledge journey should be attempted unless 
to save life," he set out for Ig-loo-lik with Ou-e-la, his wife, a boy, 
and a half-breed babe, as his only companions. 



HALL BUYS HIS DOGS. 



251 




BOXE-CHAR:\rS OF IG-LOO-LIK. 



The usual delays were experienced. Ou-e-la stopped to visit the 
grave of his brother, and as at this stoppage some of the dogs were 
missing, a return to the ships became necessary ; on the renewal of the 
route, the babe began to be both an annoyance and the cause of re- 
peated halts, and the dog-lines at one time became entangled, causing 
them to be detached from the peto^ — the line of walrus-skin fastening 
their traces to the sled- 
runners, its ends being 
bound together by a 
toggle. 

After the severe ex- 
periences of further 
delays in gale-bound 
igloos, and of extreme 
scarcity of food chafing 
even Ou-e-la's spirit to 
anger, the sledge-party 

arrived at Ig-loo-lik on the night of the 26th; and, by securing the good- 
will of the people by presents of needles, beads, and other articles. Hall 
" bartered for fourteen dogs, in as many minutes, setting his own price 
on each." His articles of barter were, knives, files, and even pieces of 
old hoop - iron, 
and wood; but 
he as readily 
made this pur- 
chase as Mc- 
Clintock had in 

1859, when he bought a reindeer-coat for a knife, and a snow-house for 
four needles. For food to supply his return journey. Hall gave some 
hoop-iron, an old meat-can, and a stick of wood, receiving several thou- 
sand pounds of walrus-hide. The Ig-loo-lik people, glad to see a Kod- 
lu-na, made him presents, the best of which was a warm fur-cap. The 
" bone-charms " were held in high esteem. The bone-handle knife 
was spoken of as having been used to scoop out the brains from the 
skulls of some Innuits by others, who had murdered them to save 
their own lives when perishing on the ice. 




KNIFE WHICH HAD BEEN USED IN SKULL-SCRAPING. 



252 a:meimcan explorations in the ice zones. 

Anxious to return to the bay, that he might begin his westward 
journey, he was again delayed by the whims of Ou-e-la, but improved 
the time by a visit to the spot where Parry had erected his flagstaff 
(1825), and here he found, with much interest, pieces of that staff with 
clear indications, that, had the season permitted, he would have found 
below ground the written document of Parry's deposit. The trench 
made in dragging the flagstaff from the sea to where it was raised 
seemed as distinct as when flrst worn by it into the limestone. On 
the day of the start homeward, it was found that Ou-e-la had put on 
the sled beside his wife a widow and her child and all her traps ; she 
was left behind only by large bribes from Hall. After further un- 
comfortable experiences from the savage, whom he felt more than 
once like shooting on the spot, — especially when refused, while sick, 
suflicient food, while Ou-e-la's family were feasting, — Hall again sighted 
the ships. His journey had cost him fifty-two more days of precious 
time ; and he now found his plans again utterly arrested. 

Two months before, when he had his men seemingly secured, the 
captains' plea had been that they could, not spare the dogs. He had 
now returned from Ig-loo-lik with his own full team ; but the whal- 
ing season is open and he is behind time ; they cannot spare a man. 
He could punish Ou-e-la, as he now did, by seizing all his dogs and 
holding them until he -had given penitent pledges for future good con- 
duct, but.it is not surprising that for a number of days he lay sick and 
almost hopeless in his igloo. He was able to punish Ou-e-la because 
of the presence of the whalers near by. He seems to have forgotten 
that the native had been irritated by being prevented from bringing 
home a second wife. Ou-e-la afterward rendered Hall much good 
assistance. 

THE JOURNEY TO CAPE WEYNTON. 

No new journey to King William Land ! But if this could not be 
in the coming season, the cache made at the Cape, the year previous, 
must be visited, to make sure of the safety of its stores, which might 
serve for the year following. Hall feared that the Pelly Bay men 
would carry them off. By the assistance of three of the whaling crews 



THE SEARCH AT IG-LOO-LIK. 253 

he started northward with them and his own two Eskimos, May 1, and 
on reaching his cache, discovered that all had been unmolested. Chang- 
ing the place of deposit to one seemingly safer and of ready access, he 
again arrived at Beacon Hill on the seventeenth of the month. His 
hopeful confidence of a journey still to be made for the records re- 
mained unshaken, and the advance cache would be a necessity for its 
success. No connected notes are to be found of his occupations during 
the summer months which followed. In September he went into winter 
quarters with some of the whaling crews, at a point near the Beacon 
Hill of Dr. Rae. He would endure another Arctic winter in an igloo. 

THE JOURNEY TO THE STRAITS OF FURY AND HECLA. 

Every preparation seemingly needed was made for the King William 
Land journey before the winter of 1867-68 had closed. But Hall now 
felt himself " called to search first for the traces of the missing navi- 
gators in a new direction." This change of plan, he seems, with reason 
to have afterward regretted ; at the time of his decision to make it, he 
thought himself sufficiently advised by the natives, to be justified in 
the course. The substance of the news which governed his new plan 
was, that white men had been seen within the previous three years near 
Ig-loo-lik, and that stone piles had also been found and tenting-places at 
points northward, which could not have been the work of others than 
Kod-lu-nas. Too promptly crediting these Innuit stories, and inferring 
from them that some of Franklin's men must have been in that region 
of country, possibly to seek a homeward passage thence to England, 
he decided to explore the coasts of the straits named above. 

March 23, 1868, with his own two Eskimos, one white man, Lailoi\ 
and the native Pa-pa-too-a, he left his encampment. For a long journey 
he had but a small dog-team and a heavy load of provisions with articles 
for presents and barter. By a return of disease he had lost fifteen dogs, 
but happily succeeded in securing from the Innuits five of the eight 
only that remained alive about the bay.* 

* The nature of tlie Eskimo dog disease was closely noted in the experience of the 
English expedition of 1875. The following is taken from the report of Fleet Surgeon 
B. Mnnis. (Parliamentary paper, C. 2176, 1878.) 

" Twenty-jfive apparently healthy dogs were embarked on board ship in the middle of 



254 



AJSIEMCAl^ EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 




May 20, 1868. Sketch looking South aud East. 
THE TENTING-PLACE. 



At the end of the second week he was nearing Ig-loo-lik, and from 
further stories given to him on the neighboring islands, he was strength- 
ened in the belief of what he had heard about the white men being 

seen on the southern 
shores of the Strait. He 
seems to have really ex- 
pected that he would 
soon find some of Frank- 
lin's men. The natives 
told him that strangers 
had again and again 
been seen there, and that 
gun discharges had been 
heard; the clothing of 
those seen was described, 
— the caps on the head 
separate from the overcoat, which had a hood ; the footprints seen had 
been long and narrow in the middle with deep places in the heel ; and 
the tread of the steps had always been outward. The last date of these 
stories was up to the year 1864; some of Franklin's men then, Hall 
thought, might have crossed over eastward to Parry's old region in the 

July, 1875. The number subsequently increased to twenty-seven by the addition of two 
young ones. We were given to understand that feeding twice a w^eek was amply sufficient ; 
that the worst possible personal treatment was too good for them, and meat in any stage 
of decomposition a perfect luxury to their fastidious palates. 

Seven and twenty animals, confined to a space which the utmost attention was scarcely 
sufficient to keep habitable, constantly quarrelling and fighting for dear life, exposed to 
sun, dew, snow, and wet generally, and without a chance of a run ashore — it was not to 
be wondered at that they began to show signs of disease. The first attacked was a young 
female twenty-five days on board ; she had a fit and died in thirteen days. Others became 
attacked. One was summarily shot; one ran away, and was seen no more; two were acci- 
dentally drowned ; seven died from the disease; six recovered ; one died mad. 

Of the whole number, twelve only were under medical treatment; one had rabies and 
died, one recovered so far as to have two litters of pups, and then died ten months after 
her first fit and two or three days after her last litter; two fell into the water when in fits 
and were drowned; two died, notwithstanding every thing was done to cure them, and six 
recovered and were landed at Disco. . . . The treatment found most beneficial was 
calomel, followed in some cases by croton oil and solution of morphia, the best of water, 
and good food. Those which were not kicked or cuffed behaved as socially and deco- 
rously as if brought up in a cottage." 



TENTING-PLACE OF WHITE MEN. 



255 




MONUMENT FOUND BY HALL, 
Lat. 69° 47' 5" N., Lon. 85= 15' W. 



forlorn hope of reaching a ship at 
Cumberland Inlet in which they 
might return to England. 

But from the top of Cape Ingle- 
field not a sign indicated that white 
men had been there, nor could the 
cache of which so much had been 
said be uncovered. Lailor and 
Ebierbing, for many hours, labored 
hard in cutting down with their 
iron snow - knives into the spot 
pointed out by the native, Koo-loo-a, 
as its site, without the least sign of 
a cairn. A discovery of some in- 
terest was, however, made in the 



remains of a tenting-place, which the natives 
assured him must have been built by white 
men, for it was traced by four stones weighing 
each from twenty-five to thirty-five pounds, 
which had been doubtless used to hold down 
the tent-corners, and by rows of smaller stones 
in places where they had secured 
the sides. An Innuit tenting- 
place close by had its stones ar- 
ranged in the native circular 
form. Both Hannah and Joe 
believed the oblong tent to 





HALL'S SKETCH OF THE COAST-IilNE NEAR THE MONUMENT. 



256 AIMEEICAN EXPLOKATIONS IK THE ICE ZONES. 

have been the white man's work, and Hall left the spot, con- 
vinced that he had found a monument and tenting-place made by 
white men. 

SURVEY OF THE NORTHWEST COAST OF MELVILLE PENINSULA. 

From astronomical observations and compass bearings he determined 
the coast-line between Cape Inglefield, the most western point of the 
Strait sighted by Parry, and Cape Crozier, the most northern reached by 
Rae in 1847 ; by which survey he may be justly said to have filled up 
this broken line of the Admiralty chart for the northwestern part of 
Melville Peniusula, at and below the western outlets of Fury and Hecla 
Strait. This was, at least, a liberal compensation for the disappoint- 
ment keenly felt on leaving the spot without records or closer traces of 
white men. On the 18th of the month following he visited Parry's 
Gifford river for the objects already named, but discovered nothing of 
interest except some traces of occupancy probably by Parry's men. 
Returning to Ig-loo-lik he hastened his preparations for setting up his 
tent again on the bay, which he reached on the 26th. His Astronom- 
ical Observations made at this season are included with those made at 
other points in Appendix I. of the " Second Arctic Expedition," pub- 
lished by the U. S. Senate 1879 ; the notes introducing that appendix 
exhibit the character and condition of the instruments employed. 

The journals of the two remaining summer months of 1868 are filled 
with the accounts of salmon-fishiDg and deer-hunting, the unfortunate 
shooting of one of Hall's five hired meu, and the capture of another 
whale. By the use of an excellent net which he had brought from home, 
large numbers of the salmon were caught, the full weight of one hun- 
dred and seventy-five captured on one day exceeding one thousand 
pounds. The unhappy man, Patrick Coleman, who seems to have placed 
himself as the leader of a mutinous party, lingered after Hall's fatal shot 
for the space of two weeks, during which time every effort was made to 
save his life by careful nursing ; the other four hired men shipped for 
home on the first two whalers that came into the bay. 

Still, even without the companionship of white men. Hall deter- 
mined to pass another Arctic winter in the long-cherished hope of 



DISCOVERIES IN THE NORTHEAST. 



257 



reaching King William Land. By the close of August he had succeeded 
in the capture of another whale, the blubber of which was cached for 
fuel, the skin for food, the meat for the dogs, and the bones for renewed 
shipment to the United States. During the month of November he made 
a journey to Lyons Inlet, surveying portions of it ; having made on the 
two journeys of the year, the discoveries of a new inlet, lat. 67° N., Ion. 
84° 30' W., a few miles north of Norman Creek; a bay on the west side 
of Fox Channel, lat. 69° N., Ion. 81° 30' W. ; a lake twenty-five miles in 
length, lat. 68° 45' N., Ion. 82° W. ; and a second lake, in lat. 69° 35', 
fifty miles in length, with its two 
outlets; the lake running parallel 
with Fury and Hecla Straits. Also, 
two islands ; one northwest of the 
west end of that strait and the 
other at its east end. What he 
considered accomplished of the most 
importance geographically was the 
completion of the coast around the 
north side of Melville Peninsula. 

The winter of 1868-69 was spent 
with more than usual comfort. The 
natives were , better supplied with 
stored provisions and had better 

success in the hunt during the intervals of open seasons. HalFs inter- 
course was not again broken by estrangements on their part, but he 
had much to be^r from their too great intimacy, their frequent and 
long protracted visits to his igloo, which was at times filled with men, 
women, and children to the youngest, all jabbering, crying, humming, 
begging and stealing. They gave him some compensation, perhaps full 
recompense — by their supplies of the walrus and seal. His^ visits to 
their village were frequent. He remained free from a touch of scurvy 
as indeed he was throughout all of the three expeditions, of nearly 
nine years. 

By March 21, 1869, he and Ebierbing had dried nearly two hundred 
pounds of venison, made up new furs for the spring journey and 




HALL'S BOAT-LOG. 




< = 



llllliiL.liiJirtllL,llJ,lllli| 1 ILL 111 ill mil .ILJil^lluUli^llliy ilMlilllli 



A DIFFICULT JOURNEY. ' 259 

moulded a full supply of ammunition. They were by no means assured 
of the friendly disposition of the tribe among whom they were to search 
for the lost records and learn something of the lost navigators, but on 
the 22d made an advance deposit for the new journey. Hall was rest- 
less under the delay caused by a severe gale. 

THE SUCCESSFUL JOUENEY BEGUN MARCH 23, 1869, — KING WILLIAM 

LAND REACHED. 

" Now for King William Land," was again the note-book inscription 
of the day. The party of natives numbered five men and five females ; 
one, an infant in the hood. Despite the past experiences of Innuit 
delays, it was now either by their help or no advance whatever. 

The loads of the sleds were, of necessity, heavy, the gross weight of 
one being nearly two thousand eight hundred pounds, and of the other 
two thousand five hundred, and as this would be exclusive of the 
weight of any of the party who would ride, the dogs would be closely 
pressed. The runners of the sleds were shod with the jawbone of the 
whale ; and the usual expedients of icing when necessary, and of sub- 
stituting the man-help for the dog, were expected to have place on the 
route. The foot gear had been well provided. 

On the 31st when the party neared Cape Lady Pelly, musk-ox 
tracks were found to be numerous. The sleds needing re-icing^ the 
mixtui-e was made up of snow-water and urine, forming a more durable 
compound. The cache left in 1868 at Cape Weynton was found undis- 
turbed ; part of the stores were used, the remainder were re-deposited 
for the return supply. The journey now was westward. But the 
Innuit delays from this moment renewed themselves. Some of them 
rode lazily on the sleds, one was asleep in midday. Hall seemed to 
have wondered that none cared for his search, but, at the same time 
he wondered that the party made what advance they did, as the sledges 
frequently sank down full six inches, and at times were completely 
blocked. The route was with difficulty determined \>j any observa- 
tions; dependence was therefore necessarily laid upon native experi- 
ence and instincts. At one of the " encampments," when desiring to 
record its location, he wrote : — 



260 



"AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



" It is no wonder that my dead reckoning may be faulty with but 
the aid of a small compass across the plains of an unknown country, 
snow-clad ; thick weather ; much of the time snowing ; no object what- 
ever in sight to aid in making straight courses ; large variation of com- 
pass ; no sight of sun, moon, or stars by which to determine latitude or 




SETTING OUT FOR KING WILLIA:\I LAND. 

variation of the compass, — T can determine by astronomical observa 
tions only, the errors which are possible." 

On the 10th of April the dogs scenting new igloos, were immediately 
inspirited to make a very rapid run. They overturned sleds and travel- 
lers. The native guide. Papa Tewa, became evidently alarmed, but 
Hall urged the party forward. Apprehensions of a hostile meeting had 
not been wanting, and Jbttj was sent cautiously forward, but he soon 
reappeared with a signal of peace from the newly found huts. From 
one of them an old man and his wife made their appearance, armed 
each with a long knife, but offering a welcome ; the man proved to be a 



KING WILLIA^I LAND. 



261 



brother of the old chief whom Hall had met two years before. In his 
hut were found several articles which, he said, had come out of a ship 
sunk on Kik-i-tuk, King William Land. He told much the usual story 
of the ship and of the men who had perished. 

These people were miserabl}^ wretched in their poverty. They had 
lost nearly all their dogs by the oft prevalent disease which destroys 
them in numbers, and had no food whatever, except a few' seal bones 
with putrid meat upon them, nor had they fuel for fire. Hall's com- 
pany barely made out to obtain some drinking water by the help of a 
little fire shrub (the Andromeda tetragona) gathered from beneath the 
snow. Hall fed the hungry in the hut. 

But from some news commu- 
nicated to Hall's party, they be- 
came yet more alarmed, still he 
persuaded them to go forward. 
On the 18th of the month they 
encamped on Simpson's Lake 
in lat. 68° 30' 22" N., Ion. 91° 
31/ W., where a musk-ox was 
secured and a full supply en- 
joyed by all. Hall remarks 
that the greater part of what 
was killed went down the In- 
nuit paunch ; " and as for one of them, Nu-ker-zhoo, he is a regular 
hog, eating more than any two others, feeding his dog on the choicest 
pieces, and having no shadow of regard for others." 

May 30, more igloos were seen and proofs of their being occupied; 
another advance was made, further preparations being taken* for de- 
fence. Within one hundred and fifty fathoms of the huts, two of the 
party were sent forward, knives in hand ; but they found the strangers 
willing to be friends. The man, of whom Hall had more than once 
heard, as the one knowing the most about the ships, In-nook-poo-zhee- 
jook, hastened to meet him. 

The first question asked was "Nou-ti-ma Aglooka?" (where is Cro- 
zier ? ) and the first thing shown was a large silver spoon with an eel's 




HALL'S BELT AXD TABLET-COATEES FOE, 
HIS NOTES. 



262 



A^IERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZOJSIES. 



head crest — Franklin's. An encampment was immediately made, the 
natives cutting out their snow-blocks for the igloos with knives which 
had come from the ships. The hut was full of things from them, and 
Hall readily made his purchases. The old man sketched for him the 
land he was to visit, directed his route, and fed him on accounts of the 
Franklin men. Taking him upon his sled, Hall went forward to find 
a place on which some wliite men were buried ; the native led him by 
a straight course to the desired spot on Todd's Islands. 

On one of these islets he fixed him- 
self, and immediately set out to search 
for the graves, finding, however, part 
only of a human skeleton. Crossing 
the second day to the mainland, after 
hours of weary labor in digging down 
into the snow covering, his attendants 
found one entire unburied skeleton ; 
over this a pile was built up, but the 
gale and the hardness of the snow de- 
barred further search, nor was greater 
success the result of continued search 
at other points. During his stay with 
the natives on this visit, he felt satis- 
fied that he could now account for 
probably seventy-nine of the one hun- 
dred and five men of Crozier's party from the abandoned ships. They 
told him that Ag-loo-ka (Crozier) had come along near their tents, his 
telescope hung about his neck, and his men di^agging two boats ; he had 
a gun in his hand, but on seeing him lay it down, the Innuits laid down 
their spears ; he told them about the ice destroying their ship, and of 
the men who had died, and said that he was going to Iwillik (Repulse 
Bay), making motions with his hands in that direction. They also 
said that the Innuits had left them, knowing that they were starved 
men. 

Hall reproved them sharply for deserting Crozier. It would, how- 
ever, seem probable that they did so under the fear that Crozier's larger 




IVORY KNrnES. 



hall's unwilling RETTmN. 263 

party would starve them out; and here the remark seems to force 
itself, that the terrible loss of Crozier's large party must have been the 
result of the failure to secure, before the ships sank, enough of con- 
densed provisions for their land journey, and of his not having native 
helpers as part of his crew, on whom he might have depended as later 



FAC-SIMILE OF A PAGE OF HALL'S FIFTY-TWO NOTE-BOOKS 
OF THIS JOURNEY. 

explorers have always done for guidance and for success in the hunts. 
This success might have been looked for from experienced Innuits at 
the season of the fatal march, the middle of June. ' 

EETUEN TO THE BAY. 

The final return journey was now begun. All the natives who had 
gone with Hall were anxious to be safe back at Repulse Bay, Nu-ker- 
zhoo declaring that unless they started back in four days, the ice and 



264 A]MERICAN EXPLORATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

snow would be off the sea, and they would have very great trouble. 
The journey to Terror Bay, on the west side of the island, where it was 
said a tent had once been found, the floor of which was completely 
covered with the remains of white men, and even a shorter journey to 
Point Richardson were therefore given up. The return party consisted 
of fifteen persons with a team of eighteen dogs, one of these not being 
permitted to do work for some days for having eaten up a babe which 
a native woman had thrown away on finding it was not a male. In- 
nook-poo-zhee-jook had proved so skilful a guide that Hall now took no 
account of his courses, but gave himself up to the noting down of what- 
ever further accounts of Franklin men he could glean. The cut repre- 
sents a page of these notes written on the rough sled. 

Just before reaching Cape Weynton, Papa Tewa shot a mother deer, 
which fled, leaving the fawn to have its life "footed out," as the term 
is, for pressing down heavily one foot over the young heart. From 
this point the chief items of interest were in the repeated and successful 
hunts of the musk-ox. The natives were eager for the hunt, and Hall 
himself went in with them, killing three with two balls, which were 
found lodged in the third ; Hannah killed four young ones. 

The striking points of these hunts are illustrative of Innuit customs 
and of the habits of the ox when attacked. The fight was at the place 
where two bands were successively seen. When the first of these was 
surrounded, as soon as they perceived that the dogs were slipped, they 
formed into their usual one circle of defence, " a musk-bull battery of 
nine solid battering heads and twice the number of sharpened horns." 
The dogs were quickly at these heads, barking and jumping back and 
forward, while the hunters made no haste to advance, for they knew 
that the bulls would stand their ground all day if no other enemies 
came. 

" After a few minutes' watch of the movements of dog versus bull 
and bull versus dog, the old hunter, In-nook-poo-zhee-jook, went forward 
to within twelve feet of a large bull, carrying a lance which had a line 
attached by which he could draw it back ; but at his second throw, the 
wounded and infuriated bull made a fearful forward plunge, from the 
effects of which the hunter and his companions escaped only by a very 



LETTER TO MR. GRINNELL. 265 

timely jump to the left. The bull was soon again brought to bay. 
Ou-e-la then pulled trigger on another noble bull of the circle of 
defence, and Pa-pa shot the one which had been lanced, when at the 
noise of these guns the whole circle bolted away, except two, who stood 
their ground, side by side, long after the whole fight was ended, and 
even when the dogs were driven aw^ay from them and stones had been 
thrown." 

" Instead of moving, each of these two kept throwing his massive 
head down between his forefeet, rubbing the tip of each horn against 
the foreleg as one would rub a razor on a strop. This is the animal's 
habit imless he finds himself, when attacked, near some large stone 
which he may use for the same purpose of sharpening his horns. The 
work of death upon the others of this band and upon the second band, 
was completed by the rest of Hall's men with guns, spears, and the 
bow." 

The number of oxen killed on this return journey numbered seventy- 
nine ; their skins weighed nearly nine hundred pounds. As many as 
eighteen deer also were taken, and the supply of small game was as 
good. Hall felt prompted to write that if Crozier had enjoyed the 
facilities which he now had, the lost men would have been saved. 
Before the close of the month his party were congratulating them- 
selves on the abundance laid up for feasting and on an entire surrender 
of themselves to repose. 

In a letter to Mr. Grinnell to be forwarded if occasion offered before 
his own return to the States, he summed up the results of this visit espe- 
cially as to the finding of some of the remains of the missing navigators, 
and determining anew that the "Erebus" and "Terror "had indeed 
made the long desired northwest passage, and had perished there. 

The substance of the letter was, that he had intended to make this 
journey the season previous, but had visited Melville Peninsula with 
the ardent expectation of rescuing there some of Franklin's lost com- 
panions, and that on his late journey to King William Land he had 
found the following traces of Crozier's sad history: — that late in July, 
1848, with about forty men he had passed down the west coast near 
Cape Herschel, liis party dragging two sleds ; that just before reaching 




266 AJklEEICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the cape he had encamped near four families of natives who, in the 
night, had left the suffering party ; that the skeleton of one of the 
party found by McClintock had never been seen by the natives ; that 
east of Pfeffer River on the sea shore two had died and been buried ; 
that five miles eastward, another had been buried; that on Todd's 
Islet were the remains of five ; that on the west of Point Richardson, 
Poo-yet-ta, known to Sir John Ross, had seen an awning-covered boat 
with the remains of more than thirty; and that a little way inland 
from Terror Bay a large tent was known to have had its floor covered 
with remains. 

Hall further wrote that he had tried hard to accomplish more, be- 
lieving that he could have gath- 
ered up the remains of many more 
of the unfortunate men, and might 
have recovered the manuscript rec- 
ords spoken of to him as deposited 
in the vault at Cape Victory, but 
that not. one of his company 
would on any account whatever 
remain with him for a summer 
search, for which refusal, he did 
not blame them, knowing as he did the character of the strange 
natives. He said : — 

" I could readily have gathered great quantities of the relics of the 
expedition for they are now possessed by natives all over the Arctic 
regions from Pond's Bay to Mackenzie River; I had to be satisfied 
with taking upon our sleds one hundred and twenty-five pounds total 
weight including part of one side of a clinker-built and copper-fastened 
boat, a small oak sledge-runner, piece of the mast of the ship which 
made the passage, a chronometer box with the queen's broad arrow en- 
graved on it, a mahogany writing-desk, and many pieces of silver plate, 
forks and spoons, parts of watches, and knives bearing crests and 
initials of the owners. The ship which made the passage with five 
men on board was found by the Ook-joo-lik natives near O'Reily Island 
lat. 68° 30' N., Ion. 99 W., early in the spring of 1849." 




PABTS OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S DESK. 

Exhibited at the U.S. Centennial (deposited at the Smithsonian), 



TWO NEW VOYAGES PROPOSED. 267 

AN ARCTIC SUMMER. 

The temperature during July was high, and rains and storms, fre- 
quent, the storms coming generally from S.S.E. and N.E. The lowest 
readings of the thermometer at night were from 40° to 46°, and the 
highest at noon from 60 to 71°. A storm on the 19th was accompanied 
by sharp lightning. Hannah told Hall that in her country lightning 
was always fatal to red dogs ; her people always killed them when 
young. The plains were now purple with the wild saxifrage (saxi- 
fraga oppositifolia) ; its beautiful flowers, followed by those of other 
floral tribes, clothed the earth with carpets of gold, crimson, blue, white, 
pink, and straw-color. The Andromeda tetragona^ so often used as 
the shrub fuel, itself bore pretty flowers. Hall's collection of wild 
flowers embraced a dozen varieties. Mosquitoes were very num- 
erous and persistent; a walk on shore seemed unbearable, unless 
every exposed part of the body was covered with a defence. Hall's 
was coal-oil. 

He was now for some weeks solicitous as to his return home. Con- 
scious that he could accomplish nothing further of research, he purposed 
to publish the results of his protracted Arctic experience, and then make 
a voyage to the Pole, on which subject he had long meditated; then 
again to return to King William Land. The expression of such pur- 
poses comes strangely from one whose sledge journeys only during the 
five years now ended, footed up more than four thousand miles. Noth- 
ing but the extreme of a strange fascination with an uncouth life can 
explain this. He says himself that whatever food the natives delighted 
in delighted him ; that he had enjoyed a grand good feast on the kind of 
meat he had been longing for, "the deer killed last fall, rotten, strong, 
and stinking, and for these qualities excellent for the Innuits and for 
the writer." This, however, must not be taken as an indication of any 
sympathy with the low and immoral practices he was compelled to wit- 
ness. Unable to restrain the demoralization brought on by large suc- 
cesses in the hunts when the Innuits ate three-fourths of their food for 
the mere pleasure of eating, he was yet more pained by the fact that the 
hunts were made occasions for promiscuous concubinage. This was the 



268 AMERICAN EXPLORATIOKS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

constant practice. Hannah said she " would rather die right away than 
stay at the bay." 

While he was hoping for the sight of a whaler, he succeeded with 
native help in gumming nearly eight hundred pounds of bone from the 
whale cached the year previous, on the sale of which and of his musk-ox 
skins he was expecting to repay some of the costs of the voyage. 
But now the question of the possibility of his being compelled to 
attempt in his frail boat a YOjSigQ to York Factory, Hudson's Bay, 
without a chart, was happily settled by the arrival of the "Ansell 
Gibbs " of New Bedford, on board of which vessel he took up his quar- 
ters with Eskimo Joe, Hannah, and her adopted child Pun-na; at 
Ig-loo-lik two years before he had bartered a sled for this child, to 
console Hannah for the death of her own babe. 

The whaler left the Welcome August 28th, passed through Hudson's 
Bay and Straits without the occurrence of any incident of unusual 
interest, and came into the harbor of New Bedford, Mass., September 
26, 1869. 

When nearing the lighthouse of Nantucket, Mass., Hannah and her 
child doffed their native dresses for those of a civilized land. At the 
Parker House, New Bedford, Hall made his last journal entry, Septem- 
ber 26, 1869, 2 P.M. : " How thankful to high Heaven ought my poor 
heart to be for the blessed privilege of again placing my foot upon the 
land of my country." 

He immediately telegraphed his arrival to Mr. Henry Grinnell, 
expressing his hope of seeing him in a few days in New York, and 
within the next month, was at work in that city for his North Polar 
Expedition of 1871. 





HORXS OF MUSK-OX AXD DEER SHOT BY HAisXAH. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NORTH POLE EXPEDITION OF 1871. 

hall's early desire to reach the POLE — LECTURE IN, WASHING- 
TON — APPROPRIATION BY CONGRESS — THE " POLARIS " SAILS FROM 
NEW YORK — ARRIVES AT FISKERNAES — U.S.S. "CONGRESS" AT GOD- 
HAVN — HANS HENDRICK — TESSUISSAK — NORTH WATER REACHED 

— THE "POLARIS" BESET AT 82° 16' — CONSULTATION — DRIFT TO 
THE SOUTH — ANCHORED TO PROVIDENCE BERG — WINTER QUARTERS 

— SLEDGE JOURNEY — DEPOSIT IN THE CAIRN — HALL's DEATH AND 
BURIAL — WINTER OF 1871-72 — AURORAS — RETURN OF THE SUN — 
THE " POLARIS " LEAVES THE HARBOR — DRIFTS SOUTH — THE 
SEPARATION — THE SHIP LEAKING — HOUSE ON THE FLOE — DRIFT 
OF THE FLOE PARTY AND RESCUE — RELIEF SHIPS SENT FOR THE 
"POLARIS " — DeLONG'S CRUISE — ^ RESCUE OF THE "POLARIS " PARTY 
BY THE " RAVENSCRAIG " — HALL's MEMORIALS — MEDAL AWARDED 

— TABLET PUT UP BY THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION — THE ESKIMOS 
KUD-LA-GO, JOE, HANNAH, OUSE-GOONG, AND ABBOT — GRAVES AT 
GROTON, CONN. 

DURING each of Hall's two residences among the Eskimos he 
repeatedly spoke of his hope to lead an Expedition toward the 
Pole ; writing to a friend as early as 1863, "My third voyage will 
be to the northern axis of the great globe." He renewed like expres- 
sions in the notes of his Second Voyage, and wrote to the Committee 
of U. S. Senate on Foreign Affairs, March 29, 1870, that for years he 
had held this in mind. 

In the beginning of that year, on a visit to Washington City, he had 
called upon President Grant, and, not long after, lectured before him 
in response to an invitation signed by the Vice-President and members 
of the Cabinet and of Congress then in session. After a laborious and 
anxious season of suspense, he succeeded in obtaining an appropriation 
for an Expedition to the North Pole, in the sum of $50,000, by a clause 
incorporated in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Appropriation 
Bill, approved by the President July 12, 1870. Eight days afterward, 



270 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

he received a commission as Commander of the Expedition, which 
required him to report to the Secretaries of the Navy and of the Interior 
Departments for detailed instructions. The Act authorized the Secre- 
tary of the Navy to employ any suitable vessel in the Expedition, and 
provided that the scientific operations should be prescribed in accord- 
ance with the advice of the National Academj^of Sciences. 

The vessel selected as available for the purpose was the steamer 
" Periwinkle," a tug which had seen some service in the war of the 
rebellion ; her burden was three hundred and eighty-seven tons. After 
being newly and heavily timbered and strengthened in her side plank- 
ing, the bottom was thoroughly calked, then double-planked, calked 
and coppered. Everything else deemed necessary for safety and com- 
fort was also done with such care that " no vessel, even if especially 
•built, could have been better adapted to the service." * Launched at 
the Washington yard, April 25, 1871, she was named by Hall the 
" Polaris," under which name she sailed for New York, June 10, and, 
after further equipment at the Brooklyn yard, proceeded to New Lon- 
don, June 29, and sailed for the Arctic Zone July 3. 

Her complement of officers, including the scientific corps, was : — 

C. F. Hall, commander. 

S. O. Budington, sailing-master. 

George E. Tyson, assistant navigator. 

H. C. Chester, mate. 

William Morton, second mate. 

Emil Schumann, chief engineer. 

A. A. Odell, assistant engineer. 

N. J. Coffin, carpenter. 

Emil Bessels, surgeon, chief of scientific staff. 

R. W. D. Bryan, astronomer. 

Frederick Meyer, meteorologist. 
The crew consisted of fourteen persons, and the two Eskimos, Joe 
and Hannah, were again Hall's companions. 

* This endorsement of the fitness of the "Polaris" for Arctic service, quoted 'from 
the late Admiral Davis, is a sufficient answer to the contrary representations made by 
some of the under officers of the ship, and on that authority only copied in foreign pub- 



hall's instructions. 271 

Secretary Robeson's instructions to the Commander advised him 
that he might expect additional supplies through a transport which he 
would meet at Holsteinborg, or at Disco, aiid, that after receiving these 
he should proceed across Melville Bay to Cape Dudley Digges, and 
thence make all possible progress with vessel, boats, and sledges toward 
the North Pole, using his own judgment as to the route and the loca- 
tion of his winter quarters. The operations of the Scientific Depart- 
ment being required by law to be in accordance with the advice of the 
National Academy, he was furnished with a full copy of their sugges- 
tions, and instructed to give to the head of the Scientific Corps every 
facility in carrying these into effect. Dr. Bessels was to remain chief 
of this corps in the event of the death of the Commander, and Captain 
Budington to continue as the sailing and ice-master, and control and 
direct the movements of the vessel. The " Polaris " was provisioned 
and equipped for two and a half years, but her cruise was not restricted 
to this period, if Hall's objects called for an extension of time and his 
supplies would hold out. Appreciating the opportunities which might 
offer for the extension of the knowledge of geography and of other 
sciences, the Secretary added to his instructions relative to the work of 
the Scientific Corps, that any and all individual observations or collec- 
tions made by persons outside of the corps should be considered, as is 
usual, public property, and placed under the charge of the chief of the 
Scientific Department. The positions of capes, headlands, and islands, 
and the coast-lines, and the observations of tides and currents, with 
the making of surveys, were also objects of the Secretary's instruc- 
tions, besides the detailed suggestions of the Academy on these sub- 
jects, furnished as of equal authority. 

" Hall's own views of Arctic investigation," says Admiral Davis, 
"were much more comprehensive than might be inferred from the 
means and material employed in his previous Expedition. His own 
plan embraced two vessels, together with a large supply of dogs and 
sledges. If he could have carried out this plan, he meant to maintain 

lications. Admiral Davis used this language to express the result of his inquiries at the 
Navy Department and at the AVashington Navy Yard, at which yard an outlay exceeding 
the sum of $90,000 had been expended on the ''Periwinkle." 



272 



A^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



an occasional communication between himself and the civilized world, 
wherever he might be. And there is no doubt that, for the accomplish- 







'iiiiillljliiiliiliMiliillliiilliiiii'iiiiliM^^^^^ 



ment of this, he would have turned to a good account his familiarity 
with Eskimo life, language, and customs. Thus he would have been 



FISKERNAES AND HOLSTEINBORG. 273 

able not only to report progress, but to receive additional aid from 
home. Such was his expectation. If we carry our minds back to 
the history of Arctic Exploration, we perceive at once how many 
evils are avoided, and how many advantages reaped by this joint 
co-operation." * 

On the voyage to Newfoundland the " Polaris " encountered heavy 
weather and frequent fogs. On the 10th she made Cape Ra6e, and on 
the 12th anchored at St. John's. Hall here again received every cour- 
tesy and attention from the authorities of the Province ; in turn he 
entertained the Governor and his suite. The ship left St. John's for 
Greenland on the 19th, and on the 27th had the first sight of high 
snow-covered peaks, and of welcoming natives in their kayahs. The 
same day the " Polaris " dropped anchor in the harbor of Fiskernaes, 
where she was visited by Governor Schoenheidter, and on the next 
day by the greater part of the population, especially by the women. 
" Some of these were thought to be handsome ; all were gayly dressed, 
wearing boots of well-tanned seal-skin, which reached above the knee, 
seal-skin trousers tastefully ornamented with needle-work, and jackets 
covered Avith bright cloth and trimmed around the neck, wrists, and 
lower edges with fur and pretty bead ornaments." 

After a visit by some of the party to the Moravian Missionaries at 
Lichtenfels, who, at this place, have care of more than half of the 
whole number of Eskimos of Greenland under them, the ship left the 
harbor and anchored, on the 31st, in Holsteinborg. At this port a 
Swedish Scientific Expedition under the command of Baron Yon Otter, 
now on its return voyage, brought Hall the good news from Uper- 
navik, that the season was promising, few icebergs having been seen 
between Holsteinborg and Disco, and none recently between Disco and 
Upernavik. Baron Yon Otter received Hall's first dispatches for the 
Secretary of the Navy. His ship expected to stop at St. John's/ The 
" Polaris " awaited the arrival of the U. S. ship " Congress," the trans- 
port which was to renew his supplies and bring further instructions, 

* I'J'arrative of the North Polar Expedition of 1871," edited under the direction of 
the Secretary of the Navy, by Eear- Admiral C. H. Davis, U. S. Naval Observatory, 1876- 
From this volume chiefly the present chapter has been prepared. 



274 



AJNIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



but left the harbor August 3, and, under the guidance of a native pilot, 
twenty-four hours afterwards, was safe in the harbor of Godhavn. On 




the 6th the Commander, accompanied by several of his people, attended 
divine service in the neat but very plain chapel of the Moravian - 



HANS HENDRICK ENGAGED. 275 

Hymns were chanted, passages of the Scriptures read, prayers offered, 
and a sermon preached by the Catechist in the absence of the regular 
clergyman. The Chief Inspector of the District, Mr. Smith, who 
had now come to Godhavn in response to a message sent by a boat 
journey under Mate Chester to Rittenbeck, was visited by Hall and 
by Capt. H. K. Davenport, U. S. N., who had arrived in command of 
the transport, the " Congress," and whose officers on landing were 
saluted by a battery of six 6-pounders, which was returned by the 
"Congress," the Danish flag being hoisted at her mast-head. The 
Inspector very cordially responded to the letters of the Secretary of 
the Navy, presented by Capt. Davenport, consenting to receive and 
care for in the Government store-house, the stores and provisions for 
the use of the Expedition, — the " Congress " had brought sup- 
plies beyond present necessities. Before the ship left the harbor. 
Captain Davenport gave '' some judicious instructions and advice 
to the crew of the ' Polaris,' which, considering the heterogeneous 
character of the ship's company, was well-timed " ; had it been fol- 
lowed, some later difficulties might have been prevented. Rev. Dr. 
Newman, of Washington, Rev. E. D. Bryan, of Carbondale, Pa., and 
Capt. James Budington, of Groton, Conn., (the salvor of the British 
ship " Resolute," ) passengers on the " Congress," returned in her. The 
'' Polaris " left Godhavn on the 17th, and the next day Svartehuk was 
on the starboard beam, distant eight miles ; and at 1 A. M. of the 19th 
the ship anchored in Upernavik, having made a run of two hundred 
and twenty-five miles in thirty-three and a half hours. The inhabitants 
were all asleep, and were not easily ^awakened ; the sun at midnight 
had been but four degrees below the horizon, and it was then but one 
hour and a half to his rising. 

Mate Chester was now dispatched in a boat to Proven, fifty miles 
southward, to bring Hans Hendrick to the ship, and a kayak was sent 
the same distance northward to procure Jansen of Tessuissak, whose 
services, however, were not secured. Hans Hendrick contracted to 
serve as dog-driver and servant at a salary of fifty Danish dollars per 
month. His wife and three children came on board the " Polaris " with 
their luggage of bags, boxes, skins, cooking utensils, tools, implements 



276 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of the chase, and three or four puppies whose eyes could scarcely bear 
the light. These accompaniments, as on the Expedition of Dr. Hayes, 
proved a nuisance ; Hans, a most useful helper. He did not recognize 
Morton until the latter had pointed out some scars on Hans' right 
hand, the remains of injuries from a powder explosion on the shore of 
Kennedy Channel. Twenty years had passed since the two had made 
for Kane the memorable sledge journey to Cape Constitution and the 
reported " open Polar Sea." 

The Upernavik settlement consists of some twenty-two houses in- 
habited by sixty Eskimos. They appeared even less cleanly than those 
in the more southern settlements. Just back of the settlement on the 
slope of the ridge, is a graveyard, distinguished by crosses, head-boards, 
and little in closures marking the graves. "The absence of vegetation, 
the want of method in the arrangement of the graves, and the dismal 
aspect of the fragments of unsightly rock covering the surface, added 
greatly to the sadness and dreariness of that northern cemetery. The 
hardness of the ground making it necessary to place the coffins on its 
surface, and cover them with stones, the remains in the course of time 
often become exposed." At this settlement, observations for position 
were made and its magnetic elements determined ; collections of the 
fauna and flora of the surrounding country were obtained and its geology 
studied. Photographs were also secured of Eskimo life and habits. The 
" Polaris " took on board five tons of coal, and a large number of seal 
and dog skins ; and now twelve dogs, added to a pack made up at St. 
John's, began their hideous bowlings on board ship. On leaving the 
harbor, dispatches were again made up for the Secretary of the Navy, 
and placed in the hands of Governor Rudolph, who sailed on the 21st 
for Denmark in the brig " Julianhope." 

August 24, Hall was again at sea, having left his last stopping-place, 
Tessuissak. He had failed to secure the services of Jansen to accom- 
pany him on the cruise, but was skilfully piloted by him through the 
aarrow channel and the islets; and he had again increased his dog 
teams, and seems to have been at this hour of " striking for the Pole," 
fully satisfied with all the equipments of his ship and the promise 
before him. He wrote that the prospects of the Expedition were fine, 



HALL S BRIGHT HOPES. 



277 



more so than he had ever hoped or prayed for. The fog which even 
then shut down upon him was to him no omen of evil. 



iil'""'"''^ ' ' ■""'^ 




For a number of days following he had indeed reasons for being 
strengthened in every ground for encouragement. His advance was 



278 Ajmekican explorations in the ice zones. 

more rapid than had been secured on any former Arctic voyage. For 
the first thirty miles of her course from the harbor tlie ship was headed 
due north, careful lookouts being posted on watch for the coast dangers- 
as the fog continued ; at noon of the 25th, when it lifted, all sail was 
set to a freshening breeze and Cape York was soon sighted. Icebergs 
were numerous, and the pack-ice more than once encountered, but on 
running westward along its southern edge, the " Polaris," after some 
buffeting and working through the pack, stood on a course about 
N.N.W. true, and on the night of the 26th left the Cape behind her. 
The north water had thus been favorably reached in about forty-eight 
hours. 

Crowds of walruses were now seen blackening two floe pieces which 
covered areas of half a mile each. They were lazily sleeping, and 
showed no signs of apprehension at the approach of the ship further 
than to roll their heads lazily about. Huddled closely together and 
offering easy range to each floe as the ship passed between them, 
they were twice fired at by Eskimo Joe, but with the success only of 
wounding. Captain Hall was unwilling that the ship should stop for 
the capture of any. 

Much ice was again found off the northern entrance of Wosten- 
holme sound ; it was the bay-ice of but one winter's growth, but where 
it was closely packed, the " Polaris " had a difficult task to get through ; 
yet at midnight of the 26th she had left Fitz-Clarence Rock and was 
opposite Cape Parry. In the morning of the 27th she was compelled 
for the. first time to stop off the western shore of Hakluyt Island. 

For the ice now changed its character, being found in the solid and 
permanent packs which had accumulated in bays and straits and around 
the outlying islands. Yet the ship soon made new advances, Sailing- 
Master Budington succeeding from his long-matured Arctic experience 
in selecting the weakest points for the attack and working through 
every favorable lead. At 3 p.m. he was opposite Cape Alexander ; at 
five, he had passed Littleton Island ; and at eight, crossed the parallel 
of Kane's Rensselaer Harbor. Smith's Sound was also found open. 
The " Polaris " was already in higher latitude than that reached on this 
route by any former expedition. 



WALRUSES. 



279 



When within five miles of Point Joy on the 28th the ship had 
rounded the northwestern prolongation of the pack, she was in com- 




paratively open water, and in sight of a small bay which seemed to be 
suitable for a harbor. Hall was disposed to pnt into winter quarters 



280 AISIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

here and then push forward toward the Pole by sledges on the ice, but 
an examination of the bay by himself and Mate Chester showed that 
the water was not quite deep enough ; the " Polaris " then resumed her 
course. Steaming another hour through the entrance of Kennedy Chan- 
nel she passed Cape Frazer, and running along the land at a distance of 
five miles, rapidly passed Capes Norton Shaw, McClintock, and Lawrence. 
On the 29th Cape Leiber was distinguished on the western coast; and 
at 1 P.M. the ship entered a strait some twenty-five miles in width and 
w^orked her way slowly through it despite of the increasing thickness of 
the floes and the force of the currents. During the night and for 
several hours in the early part of the 30th, she was kept moving toward 
the north, passing immense ice-fields which increased with the latitude, 
but at 6 A.M. she had reached the northern limit. The ice was so com- 
pact that it was impossible to force the vessel through ; it was firm from 
one coast to the other ; so far as the eye could penetrate the fog, there 
was no open space to the north and no sign of an open passage. Hall 
was in front of an impassable barrier. He had, however, gained a 
point which his observations gave as 82° 26', lat. N. from which deter- 
mination the results of Mr. Meyer's careful computations differ but 
ten minutes. 

THE DRIFT. 

But it became impossible to keep the " Polaris " at this point ; she 
drifted from it with the current, and^on the 30th was secured to a large 
berg, with which she continued to drift southward until, on the ice 
opening somewhat, she was cast off and was headed for the eastern 
shore of the channel, where a harbor was promptly sought. 

In this effort Hall was twice disappointed, and yet it seemed evident 
to all that it was useless to attempt to force a passage along the eastern 
coast of the channel. After a consultation with Budington, Chester, 
Tyson, and Dr. Bessels, he decided to make an attempt to get to the 
westward, but if unsuccessful, to seek immediately a harbor on the 
eastern coast of the strait. Dr. Bessels had coincided with him in 
this decision, in the hope that a passage might be found toward the 
north along the land on the west coast, where sledge-travelling in the 



282 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

spring might be more practicable. This was Hall's great desire as it 
had been that of Dr. Hayes, who, however, as has been noted, had failed 
in it ten years before. 

Mate Chester had given his opinion that they should save Avhat 
advance had been already made in place of risking a drift to the souths 
or, perhaps, a fatal imprisonment in the ice. Tyson, who had spent 
much of his time in the Crow's Nest, advised Hall to seek a harbor as 
soon as possible, and if the ice should be driven out of the channel, 
then start again further north. Captain Budington had pointed out 
the bay which he wished the vessel to enter, and expressed himself 
strongl}?- as regards the dangers and difficulties of an attempt to force a 
passage through the pack-ice to the west. The three officers urged that 
the ship had done what she could ; that the west coast could not be 
reached ; that the young ice of winter had already beguii to form, and 
that there was great danger of losing everything unless immediately 
a safe anchorage should be secured. 

Hall's decision to go to the west seemed during the remainder of the 
31st to be fully justified by the propitious state of the weather and 
the indications of open water to the north. The atmosphere was 
very clear, distinctl}^ showing both shores of Kennedy Channel, which 
appeared to extend far to the north, the western shore the further 
north before its turning to the west. And the most interesting sight 
was that of a dark-looking cloud skirting the horizon to the north and 
northeast, and extending almost entirely across the open space between 
the two coasts. Some of the ship's company thought that this was a 
water-cloud indicating the existence of an open polar sea ; others were 
certain that at different points along the cloud they saw plain outlines 
of land; a few recognized in the darkest shade near the horizon a 
water-cloud, but in the lighter portions, only a fog-bank ; and others 
again contended it was a fog-bank resting against a mountainous coast, 
and that where it occasionally opened they could distinctly see bold 
headlands. 

But, whatever may have been the true character of these appear- 
ances, presented to the eyes of men whose excited and ardent feelings 
at such an hour must be appreciated by all, it was unfortunately tlieir 



THE "POLARIS IN THE PACK. 



283 



irrepressible consciousness that there was no open water aronnd the 
vessel ; and from the mast-head none could be seen except occasional 




pools. Although the "Polaris" improved every possible chance and 
opening, she made but twelve miles in four and three quarter hours; 



284 AISIEEICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

only three of which were to the north. Her highest advance appears 
to be safely recorded at 82° 16',* about two hundred miles north of 
Kane's highest, and fifty miles above that reached by Dr. Hayes. 

In the first four days of September the " Polaris " drifted to the 
south, a distance of about forty-eight miles in a direct line. On the 
1st, the ice driven by the wind pressed upon the ship so closely that 
every man was ordered to hold himself in readiness to leave at an 
instant's notice ; fears were entertained that damage would be done 
to the propeller, the hoisting apparatus for which was placed in posi- 
tion ; unsuccessful attempts were made to unship the rudder. At 
T P.M. a huge berg piled up masses of ice before the vessel and gathered 
the smaller pieces about it; the hawsers bent to the ice-anchors in 
the floe parted, and the ship heeled over. Twenty feet thickness 
was pressing upon her creaking timbers with ice piled up to the bul- 
warks ; stores and provisions were placed on the deck, and prepara- 
tions made for preserving life ; but, two hours afterwards the ship 

* It seems best to present here the language of Admiral Davis, on this interesting 
point of the history. On page 84 of the " Narrative of the North Polar Expedition," he 
says, " It is impossible to tell the precise latitude which the ' Polaris ' had attained when 
at her highest northing. Eighteen hours before, her position had been accurately deter- 
mined; from that point her place was carried forward by dead reckoning. Two separate 
Ic^-books were kept, in which the courses and distances were correctly entered; two patent 
logs were used for the latter. Messrs. Bessels, Bryan, and Meyer, composing the scientific 
corps, had kept regular watch from the departure of the ship from Tessuissak up to the 
time when her progress was arrested. They also kept a journal, in which were entered 
the courses, and the distances (determined by one of the separate patent logs) ; and this 
was entirely independent of the ship's log-book kept by the mate. No better method 
could have been adopted for securing all the accuracy possible under the circumstances ; 
yet the difficulties and interruptions in polar navigation are so unceasing and violent that 
it is impossible to speak of results like these as being anything more than approximations 
to the truth. 

Again, on page 96, speaking of the ship's position after the renewed attempt to work 
northward he says: "This advance placed the ship in lat. 82° 16' N.; a result deduced 
from observations obtained independently of those which had given her position at 6 a.m. 
of August 30. The latter was determined by dead reckoning from noon of the preceding 
day; the former started from the latitude of the southern entrance of Kepulse Harbor; 
determined by Mr. Meyer, by a meridian sub-polar observation on June 30 of the next year. 
This reckoning made up from this subsequent observation, takes into account the courses 
and distances only without allowance for current or drift. Where so many disturbing 
causes existed, the effect of which cannot now be estimated, the determination must be 
received as approximate only. 



AT ANCHOR. 



285 



righted. On the 2d all hands were busy from 2 p.m. till midnight in 
transferring on sleds to the floe sufficient stores and coal to supply the 




wants of the ship's company during the winter. On the 3d the wind 
shifted to the southeast bringing with it much snow, but also the ap- 



286 AJMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

pearauce when this had cleared off, of indications that the ice would 
soon open and give another chance to secure a safe anchorage ; on the 
4th, the ice was cleared from the propeller well, the screw shipped, 
the stores again brought back from the floe, and the ship through 
a passage opened by the driving northeast wind freed herself from the 
ice. By midnight she was close in upon the eastern shore, and her 
anchor was dropped in ten fathoms of water. This was to be her 
position for many weary months. 



THE HARBOR. 

The harbor at last found was no snug anchorage, but was inside of 
the line of the main current and somewhat sheltered by a bold cape at a 
distance of about four miles north and west of the ship's place, — a cape 
named by Hall after one of his first benefactors in Cincinnati, Colonel 
James Lupton. A huge iceberg gave additional and lasting security. Its 
dimensions, measured by Hermann Siemens, were : length four hundred 
and fifty feet, breadth three hundred feet, and height above the water 
sixty feet; under the usual estimate for bergs, this height being counted 
as one third of the whole structure, its foundation of one hundred and 
twenty feet seemed promising of stability, and so proved even to the 
saving of the ship. Hall at once named it Providence Berg. He had 
now at least a strong security from being drifted further southward, 
and from being thus again imprisoned, or his ship crushed. Having 
submitted to the decision reached by a second consultation that any 
further northward advance was impossible, he promptly acknowledged 
the providential preservation which had been given and the successful 
advance secured, and encouraged his officers and crew with the hopes 
in which he felt himself justified in indulging that by sledge journeys 
to the north the great objects of the voyage could be entered upon. 
First of all he would secure as far as possible present safety and rest 
for officers and crew. A large quantity of stores and provisions were 
landed and their amount still further increased on the 6th, on which 
day a search for a better harbor was unsuccessful. For this landing 
two whaleboats with planks laid across were employed and the short 




iillililliiiil!lliiflili]||ilPii"i"n:iiii!iiiiiiiiiM^^ 



288 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

trips to the shore rapidly made. When the sun came out bright, 
observations of the altitude gave the termination of the position to 
be 81° 37'. 

The land as seen from the ship consisted of broken series of eleva- 
tions and depressions with occasional spurs, the mountain ranges 
varying in direction from south to east, and in elevation from nine 
hundred to one thousand four hundred feet, several prominent peaks 
showing themselves in the furthest range. Their argillaceous schist 
had spread its debris over large surfaces, but to no depth ; not the 
slightest trace of vegetation being found except a few lichens. The 
debris from Cape Lupton reached almost to the seashore, and over it 
boulders were scattered in every direction. In some few places near 
the fresh-water lakes and the water-courses, an alluvium had been 
formed which, enriched by the birds in great numbers, formed garden 
spots in the narrow plain between the seashore and the ice-foot. On 
this plain the flora of the brief Arctic summer appeared. 

Among the remains of the summer tenting-places of Eskimos, plain 
indications were found that a large party had passed part of a summer 
there. The remains consisted as usual of the stones in circles, the seal- 
skin tents which these stones had kept in position having been, taken 
down and carried away. 

After this discovery of the traces of Eskimo life at this point, Hall 
and the members of the Scientific Corps set out for the summit of Cape 
Lupton to begin the survey of the surrounding coasts, and ascertain the 
state of the ice in Robeson's Strait; the party being provided with a 
small Casella theodolite, a pocket aneroid barometer, and a pocket pris- 
matic compass. At the close of a fatiguing walk over the plain, covered 
in some places vith deep snow, in others with massive boulders, they 
came to the deep ravine which separates the cape from a high and 
steep hill which had received the name of Observatory Bluff, and were 
here brought to a stand as to the readiest way of climbing the cape. 
The ravine seemed the easier of ascent, and the side of the cape facing 
the ship, very difficult. But the majority of the party, by passing up a 
narrow gorge filled with fresh snow, succeeded in reaching the summit, 
an elevation of more than one thousand three hundred feet, Hall being 



WINTER QUARTERS, LAT. 81° 30' N. 289 

the foremost. With the usual experience of Arctic travellers, they 
found their first elevation, when gained, to be not the end of their 
journey, but only the means of showing to them a second or third sum- 
mit. From the true highest point at last climbed, the western coast 
was very distinctly seen as far as the Cape Union of Dr. Hayes, and 
beyond that cape, tliree other peaks. The sight of the eastern coast 
was cut off by a projecting cape. The channel as far as coitld be seen 
was filled with closely packed ice, with no water cloud. 

Much snow now began to fall almost daily, and the ice rapidly 
increased in thickness ; it was difficult to keep open the channel 
between the ship and the shore. An opening being made through 
the frozen slush the Observatory was taken over, section by sec- 
tion. Set up without the use of iron, it was available for magnetic 
observations. 

From altitudes of the sun taken in the intervals between passing 
clouds. Hall deduced 61° 44' W. as the longitude of his winter quarters. 
These were now improved by changes which provided for the berthing 
of the whole crew below deck, and for economy in fuel. To provide 
to the utmost for the comfort of the ship's company, he gave up his 
own state-room. On shore a house was built for the necessary enter- 
tainments of the long Arctic winter now early setting in, for the day 
was becoming sharply defined ; twilight even was growing faint. The 
Eskimos, Hans and Joe, had begun their successful captures of the seal 
and of some of the little game which had not yet gone south ; they had 
also seen traces of musk-oxen. In this last news Hall had promise of 
fresh meat, of the value of which as a defence against scurvy he was 
well aware. The weight of one of these animals, killed before the close 
of September, was nearly four hundred pounds. None had ever been 
met with by the previous Expeditions on the west coast of Greenland, 
althougli found in large numbers on the eastern coast, and on th^ main- 
land of the continents. 

Mr. Bryan and Mr. Mej^er were frequently engaged in surveys of 
the Bay and its surroundings ; one of their excursions for this purpose 
involving much hardship. The two wore the ordinary native light 
foot-gear; but Mauch, who accompanied them, wore heavy cow-hide 



INSTRUCTIONS TO BUDINGTON. 291 

boots, which encumbered his walk, and occasioned three dangerous falls 
through the ice fissures into the sea. Bryan and Meyer regained the 
ship after midnight in a state of complete exhaustion, and Mauch's life 
was saved only by a search made by Morton and Siemens, who found 

him almost unconscious. 

» 

SLEDGE JOURNEY PROPOSED. 

At morning prayers, October 10, Capt. Hall announced his inten- 
tion of starting that day upon a sledge trip, the object of which was to 
reconnoitre and select the best route for his spring journey toward the 
Pole. He had hoped to make this examination before the close of the 
previous month, and was delayed only by the snow being not deep 
enough for sled-travel over the plain, and by the preparations needed 
for the journey, and for the new dangers which threatened the ship. 
September 27, a severe gale from the southwest had driven the pack 
in, and formed large hummocks on her sides, and on the 28th, when 
his preparations had been made for leaving, the high tide in connection 
with a breeze from the same quarter, again piled up the ice in all man- 
ner of shapes. It became necessary to veer the cable, and it was found 
when the pressure ceased, that the berg had been forced in towards the 
shore one hundred yards, and the ship fifty yards. Had she not been 
specially fitted for arctic service by the strengthening given before 
leaving the United States, she must have been crushed. During the 
two days which followed, much snow fell, the wind shifted to the north, 
and an open channel was formed between the loose pack of the Strait 
and the floe at a distance from the vessel of about three-fourths of a 
mile. The ship being safe, and some necessary arrangements for the 
further preservation of the stores and the comfort of his men having 
been made. Hall was ready to start north. To the Sailing-master he 
gave specific instructions substantially as follows : — 

First, for the conduct of the ship, if she should remain safe in her 
winter position, of which he " felt almost certain," that she should be 
banked up with snow-blocks cut from the drift under the lee of the 
neighboring hill, and have her housing put up ; that the watch should 
be continued until the cook commenced his morning work ; that the 



292 AINEEEICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

most careful economy should be practised in the consumption of coal, 
no more being used than would keep the thermometer fore and aft 
at 50° with a very small fire only through the night, and candle- 
light only after 9 P. M., and that the remainder of the stores and 
provisions should be placed in complete order on the plain by the 
observatory. 

But under the possible contingency of the " Polaris " being driven 
from her position, he wrote : " A full storm from the south can send 
the pack of the Strait upon the land-pack upon which we are, and in a 
few moments cast the ' Polaris ' high and dry upon the land ; or, a 
storm from the North might drive the ice out of Thank God Harbor 
and the ' Polaris ' with it ; the spring tides must, therefore, be watched 
with great vigilance, especially during any gale or storm. If the 
' Polaris ' should drift out, she must, if possible, be brought back to her 
former position ; but should she be driven into the moving pack-ice of 
the Strait, and there become beset and unable to get released, then, unfor- 
tunately, the vessel and all on board would go to the southwest, drifting 
with the pack, — God only knowing where and when the ship's company 
would find means to escape. It might in this case be that such a drift 
movement would occur as in the case of the United States Grinnell 
Expedition of 1851-52, and of the ' Fox ' under McClintock in 1857-58 ; 
but whenever the ' Polaris ' should get released, if anywhere between 
Cape .Alexander and Cape York, or between the latter and the Arctic 
Circle, she might then make her way to Godhavn, Disco Island, and, 
if she should remain seaworthy, be filled up with coal, stores, and 
provisions, and next fall (1872) steam hack to this place. If the vessel 
should become a wreck or disabled from the imminent exposure and 
dangers of such an ice-drift as referred to, then all possible use of the 
best judgment must be brought into play for the preservation of the 
lives of all belonging to the Expedition." 

" You will, at your earliest moment of escape, acquaint the Gov- 
ernment of the United States with the whole of the circumstances; and 
should one of those circumstances be the loss of the 'Polaris,' I, and 
my small party that is about to accompany me on the proposed sledge 
journey, will remain here to make discoveries to the North Pole, 



hall's last sledge journey. 293 

using Thank God Harbor as our headquarters, and all the time feel 
certain that our country would lose no time in sending us aid in carry- 
ing out the great object of the present Expedition." 

Captain Hall had selected Mate Chester, Joe, and Hans to accom- 
pany him. At the start at 1 P.M. it required the half of some of the 
crew to assist the dogs to pull the heavily loaded sled, which' made but 
five miles before the party went into their first igloo. Hans returned 
for a second sled and more dogs ; Hall had set out with but twelve. 
Leaving the igloo on the 12th, he travelled over the plain to the north- 
east, keeping along the foot of the mountain range ; he thought that 
this plain was once a river-bed. At 1.30 p. M. of the 13th he found an 
icy river, the course of which was in the direction of the journey, and 
travelled with ease over its smooth surface, encamping on it for the 
night. Fresh water was obtained by Hans by cutting through the ice. 
On a walk the next day along this river, and at a little distance inland, 
to see if much cattle were to be found. Hall was disappointed in this, 
which had been one of the chief expectations prompting this trip. 
Except a few lichens, he found here no signs of vegetation, nothing" to 
tempt the animals ; but he thought they might be met with on an 
extensive plain which showed itself at some distance. 

On the 18th he walked to the top of a high cape, finding on the first 
elevation ascended a boulder twelve feet high, covered with lichens. 
Further on, different species of flowering plants and grasses were seen 
up to the mountain's top. From the summit, the land on the west side 
of the channel appeared to run to the north and east until it ended in 
a cape nearly due north, turning then abruptly to the west. The east 
coast ran to the northeast and disappeared on turning to the east at a 
distance of ten or twelve miles. Across the straits, far away to the 
north and east, a cloud was seen, but Hall could not determine wh'ether it 
was a water-cloud or the loom of the land. After spending some time 
in surveying and examining the surrounding country, and making an 
unsuccessful endeavor to round the cape, he determined to return, and 
on the 21st began to retrace his steps. The day, like most all of the 
others during this sledge journey, was so foggy as to make it quite 



294 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



impossible to take good sights ; it would have rendered useless any 
time spent hunting musk cattle. On the 24th he sighted the masts of 
the '' Polaris." 

hall's last DISPATCH. 

On the 20th he had deposited in a cairn, of which the cut is a literal 
transcript from the sketch in his notes, a dispatch to the Secretary 
of the Navy, which is presented below in full, as the last ever received 
from or pre ared by the unfortunate explorer. Communicating it, 
he said : 

" Chester at my suggestion took one of the boards of the twenty- 
eight pound wooden box, that I ordered to be taken apart last evening 




THE CAIRN. 



B, buried cylinder; C, condensed milk-canister, filled with sand; D, two pound meat-can; E, small water-trench; 
A, cairn. 10 F. E. This stone of slate placed at A in the ground, face up, close to the one above, which is vertical. 



Fog and 

indistinct 
liglit. 



Cape Brevoort (N. 50 E ?) 

Sixth encampment distant 43 of 

my measures. (N. 15 E.) 



(a couple of pounds of which we used last night in making scouse (lob- 
scouse or olio), and six quarts of extra water), and with his knife, cut 
in bold letters, ' 10 F. E.' (feet east), and this and thirteen other pieces 
of that box were scattered about the cairn. It was not without diffi- 
culty that we found stones of sufficient size and number with which to 
build this small pillar. Joe dug the hollow in which to deposit the 
copper cylinder. This cylinder was one of those specially designed 
for deposits, and was rendered air and water tight by being sealed 
with white bees-wax ; at the bottom I placed a small piece of board, 
then on either side two other pieces ; and, last, on the top, another ; 
then we covered the same over with three inches of shingle of the 
plain." 



hall's last dispatch. 295 

The following is the dispatch : — 

" Sixth Snow-House Encampment, Cape Bkevoort, 

''North-side entrance to Newman's Bay, Oct. 20, 1871. 

*'T(9 the IlonoraUe Secretary of the U. S. JVavy^ George M. Robeson. 

'' Myself and party, consisting of Mr. Chester, first-mate ; my Eskimo, 
Joe, and Greenland Eskimo, Hans, left the ship in wintej: quarters, 
Thank God Harbor, lat. 81° 38' North, Ion, 61° 4-1' West at meridian of 
October 10th, on a journey by two sledges, drawn by fourteen dogs, to 
discover, if possible, a feasible route inland for my sledge journey next 
spring to reach the North Pole, purposing to adopt such a route, if 
found better than a route over the old floes and hummocks of the 
strait which I have denominated Robeson's Strait, after the honorable 
Secretary of the United States Navy. 

"We arrived on the evening of October 17, having discovered a lake 
and a river on our way ; the latter, our route, a most serpentine one, 
which led us on to this bay fifteen minutes (miles) distant from here 
southward and eastward. 

" From the tojD of an iceberg, near the mouth of said river, we could 
see that this bay, which I have named after Rev. Dr. Newman, extended 
to the high land eastward and southward of that position about fifteen 
miles, making the extent of Newman's Bay, from its headland or cape, 
full thirty miles. 

" The south cape is high, bold, and a noble headland. I have named 
it Sumner Headland, after Hon. Charles Sumner, the orator and U. S. 
Senator ; and the north cape, Brevoort Cape, after J. Carson Brevoort, 
a strong friend to Arctic discoveries. 

"On arriving here we found the mouth of Newman's Bay open 
water, having numerous seals in it, this open water making close both 
to Sumner Headland and Cape Brevoort, and the ice of Robeson's 
Strait on the move, thus debarring all possible chance of extending our 
journey on the ice up the Strait. 

" The mountainous land (none other about here) will not admit of 
our journeying further north ; and as the time of our expected absence 
was understood to be for two weeks, we commence our return to- 



296 AINIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

morrow morning. To-day we are storm-boiincl to this our sixth en- 
campment. 

" From Cape Brevoort we can see land extending on the west side 
of the Strait to the north 22° West, and distance about seventy miles, 
thus making land we discover as far as lat. 83° 5' North. 

"There is appearance of land farther north, and extending more 
easterly than what I have just noted, but a peculiar dark nimbus cloud 
hangs over what seems may be land, and prevents my making a full 
determination. 

" August 30, the ' Polaris ' made her greatest northing, lat. 82° 29' 
North ; but after several attempts to get her farther north, she became 
beset, when we were drifted down to about lat. 81° 30'. When an 
opening occurred, we steamed out of the pack and made harbor Sep- 
tember 3, where the ' Polaris ' is (corner of manuscript here burned 
off). Up to the time I and my party left the ship all have been well, 
and continue with high hopes of accomplishing our great mission. 

" We find this a much warmer country than we expected. From 
Cape Alexander, the mountains on either side of the Kennedy Channel 
and Robeson's Strait, we found entirely bare of snow and ice, with the 
exception of a glacier that we saw covering, about lat. 80° 30', east side 
the Strait, and extending in an east-northeast direction as far as can be 
seen from the mountains by Polaris Bay. 

"We have found that the country abounds with life; seals, game, 
geese, ducks, musk-cattle, rabbits, wolves, foxes, bears, partridges, 
lemmings, etc. Our sealers have shot two seals in the open water 
while at this encampment. Our long Arctic night commenced October 
13, having seen only the upper limb of the sun above the glacier at 
meridian October 12. 

"This dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy I finished this moment, 
8.23 P.M., having written it in ink in our snow hut, the thermometer 
outside — 7°. Yesterday, all day the thermometer — 20° to 23°. 

"Copy of dispatch placed in pillar Brevoort Cape, October 21, 
1871."* 

* The original draft of this dispatch was brought to Washington by Eskimo Joe, who 
had carefully preserved it in Hall's writing-desk, which he had picked up on the ice after 



CAPTAIN HALL PARALYZED. 297 

At 9.40 A.M. lie completed the cairn and deposited the document. 
The monument, two feet high and two and one half feet at its base, is 
on the brow of the second plain from the sea, about fifty feet above its 
level. 

DEATH OF CAPTAIN HALL. 

Returning from the sledge journey. Captain Hall stopped a few 
moments to converse with Dr. Bessels at the Observatory, and tnen 
went immediately on board the " Polaris," shaking hands w^ith those 
whom he met, and speaking very encouragingly of the prospects of the 
expedition ; adding that he expected in a couple of days to start upon 
another sledge journey. On drinking a cup of coffee brought to him 
by the steward he was immediately taken with violent vomiting and 
retching and went to bed. Dr. Bessels, on examination, expressed 
great fears that the sickness might be fatal ; at 8 p.m. he announced 
that Captain Hall's left side was paralyzed and that he had had an 
apoplectic attack. In the morning of the 25th he was much better ; in 
the evening he suffered again much pain from constant efforts to vomit. 
On the 26th Dr. Bessels administered quinine, and cold compresses; on 
the 27th and 28th Hall was again much worse, and on this day and tlie 
two following showed marked evidences of delirium. From this lie 
seemed to recover and to regain some strength, employing his time 
in getting in order the records of his late sledge journey and dictating 
for several hours to his clerk, Mr. Mauch. But on the night of the 
sixth he had another attack, from which he sank into a comatose state 
until 3.25 a.m. of the 8th, when he expired. 

He had a good constitution and had been rarely sick, but had ex- 
perienced several very severe attacks during his Second Expedition, 
on his return to Cincinnati at its close, and while preparing to sail in 
the "Polaris." Two attacks had been those of vertigo. The ^severe 
strain of mind to which he subjected himself, coupled with the dis- 

the separation of the floe party from the " Polaris," October 15, 1872. A photo-lithograph 
will be found in the second edition of the '' Polaris " volume, issued after the death of the 
late Admiral Davis, 

The dispatch deposited in the cairn was found by Dr. Coppinger of the English Arctic 
Expedition, May 15, 1875, and sent with other relics by the British Admiralty to the 
United States Government. 



298 AMERICAN EXPLqRATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

appointment experienced by his being able to make no further northing, 
and the consciousness that no one of the heterogeneous party on board 
the " Polaris " had sufficient sympathy with his objects to relieve him 
from the greatest responsibilities, were in all probability the immediate 
occasion of the fatal result. 

At the close of an extended inquiry, made Dec. 26, 1873, by the 
request of the Secretary of the Navy, Surgeon-General Barnes, U. S. A., 
and Surgeon-General Beale, U. S. N., after the return of the ship's com- 
pany, Dec. 26, 1873, certified that, after listening to the testimony of 
Dr. Bessels with great care, and putting to him such questions as were 
deemed necessary, from the circumstances and symptoms detailed by 
him and compared with the medical testimony of all the witnesses, they 
were conclusively of the opinion that Captain Hall died from natural 
causes, — viz., apoplexy, and that the treatment of the case was the best 
practicable under the circumstances. [Report of Sec'y Navy for 1873.] 

The body of Captain Hall, after being prepared for burial, was 
covered with the national flag. 

A party under Mate Chester sent on shore to dig the grave suc- 
ceeded after the fatiguing efforts of two days in excavating the frozen 
ground to a depth of twenty-six inches — the seat of permanent frost. 
" It was daytime, but all darkness there at that season," the digging 
being done by the light of lanterns. At 11 a.m. of November 10, the 
ship's bell was tolled, the coffin placed on a sled, and the burial pro- 
cession, headed by Assistant Navigator Tyson, picked their way again by 
lantern light over the ice to the grave on shore. The ground was 
mostly covered with snow. At the close of the burial service read by 
Mr. Bryan "the silence which followed was broken by the sounds of 
the earth on the coffin and the sobs of Hannah." An overwhelming 
calamity had fallen on the sorrowing company. As regards the object 
of the expedition also, it was a fatal issue. 

WINTER ON BOARD THE "POLARIS," 1871-72. 

On the death of Captain Hall, the command of the expedition 
devolved on Captain Budington, who promptly signed with the chief of 
the Scientific Corps a paper which closes with the words : " It is our 



300 AIHERICAN EXPLOEATTONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

honest intention to honor our dear flag, and to hoist her on the most 
northern part of the earth ; to complete the enterprise upon which the 
eyes of the whole civilized world are raised, and to do all in our power 
to reach our proposed go%l. 

"S. O. BUDINGTON. 

"Emil Bessels." 

The severity of the long Arctic winter showed its beginnings before 
the middle of November. On the 18th and the two following days, a 
gale from the northeast blew with the violence of nearly fifty miles an 
hour. Hermann Siemens, a very strong man, while making his usual 
tidal observations was literally taken up by the storm and thrown upon 
the ice, and the ship itself was driven over on one side, her snow Avail 
being shoved out and broken. Dr. Bessels and Mr. Meyer were rescued 
by Hans and Joe from the greatest danger on their return from obser- 
vatory duty. The Eskimos knew better how to battle with the strong 
wind. At the Observatory, the Anemometer's caps were whirling 
round at amazing speed, indicating while it was possible to stand long 
enough before the wind to read, a velocity of from fifty to sixty miles. 
The creaking of the masts and the howling of the wind, together with 
the darkness, increased by a heavy drift of snow, made the day one of 
anxiety ; the cracking of the ice around the vessel was felt, and it was 
soon discovered that she was afloat with eight fathoms of water forward 
and six aft, increasing to twelve and a half. She was brought up by 
the best bower, the starboard anchor ; and, by Mederman and the 
Eskimos performing the dangerous duty of replanting ice-anchors, was 
again secured to Providence Berg. She drifted against the north- 
eastern side, and her stern was exposed to the attack of the floes, but 
by a narrow chance she had been saved from being carried out into 
the channel to drift south. 

Five days afterward, a gale from the southwest broke the berg 
itself into two parts, and the ice forced in between them, separating 
them by a distance of eight feet; at midnight the two parts were found 
to be in motion, the smaller one moving more rapidly. The strongest 
man now held his breath, for it really seemed that the ship must be 



THE "POLARIS AGAIN IN DANGER. 



301 



crushed, and it was thought several times that the ice had been forced 
through her side ; but when she came in contact w^ith the berg a large 




tongue of ice below with the help of the wind raised her bow with a 
cant. " This probably saved her." Siemens says : " Had the ice on 



30*2 A]\IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the lee side of the berg been as strong as that on the weather side, the 
ship would surely have been cut through or thrown on her beam-ends." 

On the 29th the berg moved in towards shore, shoving the "Polaris" 
before it, and at three in the morning, firmly grounded ; and new dan- 
gers appeared when the tide fell, for the stern of the vessel sank, leaving 
the bow four feet higher ; she also heeled over to port so much that it 
was impossible to walk the deck; but when the tide rose, the ship came 
to ^n even keel. The frightened Eskimos built two snow-houses on 
shore to live in. But the " Polaris," although much strained, was again 
saved, and the ship's company celebrated the 30th as Thanksgiving 
Day; the snow-houses built on shore were never occupied. 

Life on board the " Polaris " during the month of December, 1871, 
was comparatively monotonous. It was found impossible to change 
the position of the ship which had been made so uncomfortable by the 
piling up of the ice about the stern ; at low tide the list, especially on 
the starboard side, was exceedingly disagreeable. 

The ice in the straits was so loose that the least atmospheric disturb- 
ance set large masses of it in motion. On the 10th, open water was 
observed two or three miles distant; this was the period of "springs." 

In the middle of the month, the " Polaris " labored greatly, the 
creaking of her timbers as she moved up and down against the berg 
sounded like volleys of musketry, and the berg itself which was con- 
tinually breaking in pieces, pressed more toward the ship. Hummocks 
were piled up to the height of thirty feet above the sea level, and the 
effect of the constant pressure was to raise the vessel still higher, mak- 
ing her condition more unsafe and uncomfortable. The snow wall by 
which she had been surrounded having been carried away when she 
broke adrift, the berths were now much colder. The thermometers on 
board!" no longer agreed with those of the observatory. 

On the 25th, among the notes of his journal. Captain Budington 
says : " We are in by no means a safe position. The danger that 
threatens us is from the seaside, and this in the form of southwest gale, 
in connection Avith spring tides Avhich may push the vessel further in 
shore. She will then have only two chances, either to resist the press- 
ure of the berg and break the land ice, already three feet thick, or be 



THE "POLAIUS IN DANGER. 



303 



entirely lifted up out of the water." Two days afterward an attempt 
was made to free the vessel by exploding four large charges of gun 




powder in different places not far from the ship's side. But this did 
not even crack the ice. The Captain expresses his regret that the ship 



304 AMEEICAX EXPLORATIOXS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

had not been anchored in Newman's Bay, where, he believed, her posi- 
tion would have been undisturbed in winter quarters, twenty miles 
further north. 

The amount of coal consumed during the month was 8,060 lbs., an 
increase on the consumption of November, and this, notwithstanding 
the utmost economy exercised. Budington said : — 

"If the consumption of this fuel is continued at the same rate, a 
stoppage of which, without endangering our health, is not possible, we 
will hardly have enough for two winters, to say nothing of using steam 
on our return. The idea of piloting the vessel through Smith Sound 
with the aid of sails is an absurdity. Without considering the safety 
of the vessel, the experiences of both Kane and Hayes are sufficient to 
show that a sailing vessel, and especially one like ours, can do abso- 
lutely nothing. The first opportunity, however, we get to leave this 
winter harbor ^^ill be taken, and with the aid of steam or sails, as con- 
ditions permit us, we will attempt to reach a higher latitude, so as to 
enable us to carry out the objects we are sent for." The further pro- 
vision then made for reducing the consumption of coal saved a thou- 
sand pounds during each of the months following. 

January 16, 1872, twilight was visible at 8 a.m., and the ship's com- 
pany began to look forward to the time when active spring wc*k might 
begin. As the sunlight increased, it was seen that long confinement 
had brought a peculiar pallor to the face, but this a few days of con- 
tinuous light might restore. No case of sickness had occurred ; not ^the 
slightest form of scurvy. Judicious discipline had saved the strength 
and health of the company, who had been kept warm and comfortable, 
fed upon carefully prepared stores, supplied daily Avith lime-juice, and 
preserved from despondenc}^ by full recreation and voluntary exercise. 
The carpenter was occupied in building sledges for transporting the 
boats on a northern journey as soon as the season opened. One of 
these was fourteen feet long and two and a half feet between the cen- 
tres of the runners, which were ten and a half inches high and had 
fourteen cross-bars fastened to them by lashes of raw-hide, which thus 
gave them a play of about six degrees — a great advantage in carrying 
a heavy load over rough ice. 



VISITS TO CAPE LUPTON. — OPEN WATER. 305 

Several visits were made to Cape Lupton and the points in its 
vicinity, to learn the state of the ice. On the 17th, Tyson and Joe 
were at the cape at meridian, when the twilight was brightest. No 
water was to be seen, the straits being covered with young ice, not 
strong enough to bear their weight, mixed with large floes of a recent 
drift ; toward the western coast of the channel was a low cloud of fresh 
smoke. On the 19th, Kruger and Jamka, two of the crew,' reached a 
second cape with a team of eight dogs. From a height here of about one 
hundred feet above the sea-level a large amount of open water appeared 
extending northward as far as could be seen, to a distance estimated 
under the bright moon to be twenty miles. The hummocks and bergs 
had disappeared and a new field of ice covered the waters. On the 
24th Dr. Bessels, with two of the seamen, went to a third cape to 
examine this reported open water, and on the 28th Mate Chester again 
inspected it, finding a current of a mile an hour toward the north. The 
existence of this open w^ater was regarded as favorable to boat journeys 
in the spring. These were the subject of frequent discussions during 
the remainder of this month and of February. 

Dr. Bessels submitted to Captain Budington a plan of operations 
for the spring journey, in which he discussed the two ways of accom- 
plishing the object of the Expedition ; either by boats and the vessel 
herself or by sledges as at first proposed. The setting out of a boat 
part}^, he said, which might start the last of March or the beginning 
of April, w^ould depend entirely upon the area of open water and its 
probable continuance. One of the smaller boats should be taken 
with as many provisions, instruments, and small stores as would be 
necessary, and the boat party should follow up the eastern side of the 
strait, surveying the land and making investigations in regard to the 
currents and deep-sea soundings, the last of these being of the highest 
importance ; for, except those made by Ross in 1818, there were but a 
few others, — some taken by Inglefield and two by Kane. 

For the best additional results to be secured he recommended that, 
during the time which must elapse before a northern journey could be 
begun, sledge parties should be formed to penetrate into the interior of 
the country, learn its configuration, determine astronomically the longi- 



306 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

tude of Morton's furthest point, and re-survey the coast-line of Grinnell 
land, determining, if possible, how far it extends from east to west. 

As the sledge parties would be compelled to travel over a poor 
country and make large distances, the difficulty of providing dog teams 
suggested the probable necessity of depending almost exclusively upon 
men for dragging them. All the parties would build cairns, deposit 
records ; and whenever practicable signalize by flags and smoke, the 
" Polaris " firing a gun several times a day. 

February 4, the twilight was now so bright that any kind of print, 
from fine diamond up, could be easily read. A spectrum was for the 
first time observed. Stars of the first magnitude could be clearly seen. 

Mauch thus records an observation of a meteor : " At 4.30 P. M. 
when making my observation, and just attempting to read the ane- 
mometer, I observed in the east, above the range of hills, a bright 
meteor, slowly moving in a southerly direction toward the ground, at 
an angle of 45°. Its height when I first saw it was the same as that 
of Procyon. It was of a light-bluish color, resembling closely in its 
whole appearance, the blue light that falls from some kinds of rocket, 
when they burst in the air. Before it disappeared behind the hills, it 
left a few sparks behind, which, however, were soon extinguished. Its 
size was that of one of the stars of the first magnitude." 

A very fine auroral display was witnessed in the evening, the move- 
ments of which were complicated and the spectacle very impressive. 
The sky showed at first a slaty appearance to the northwest, with 
occasional luminous streamers. At 7.15 that quarter of the heavens 
was of a blood-red color, while faint white streamers sprang up in rapid 
succession, increasing in numbers from the west, north, and northeast; 
all of them directed to the zenith, and the outward ones bending in- 
ward. The structure was that of a dome. Then they all vanished, 
giving place to others which rose from a wider extent of the horizon. 
At 8.30 new and very bright streamers toward the zenith gathered 
about it till they formed a corona. Next, all moved northward with a 
motion of between six and seven seconds to a degree. The corona 
opened, forming a beautiful curtain of an intense color between yellow 
and white ; and at 9.30 another corona formed itself of new streamers 



AUKORAS. — PENDULUM EXPERIMENT. 307 

coming up in every direction. The display lasted all the night of the 
4th, and continued with slight interruption through the 5tli. The red 
color of the sky moved around and was last seen in the east, disappear- 
ing in the southeast. 

The temperature during the first half of December had ranged high, 
the lowest being 24°; during the last half the mercury was at 33°; 
January 9, the thermometer read — 48°. During February, the highest 
recorded was — 07, the lowest — 43° 5'. 

On the 29th, Captain Budington acknowledged the receipt of Dr. 
Bessels' plan of work, and advised him that the expedition to the north 
would probably proceed by the aid of boats, in which case it was his 
intention to take the command ; but that it appeared to be useless to 
come, as yet, to any conclusion as to this journey or the proceedings 
of the ship. 

During the winter months scientific observations were diligently 
kept up ; tidal observations, as well as the meteorological, were re- 
commenced soon after the storm of November 21. Moon culminations 
were made by Mr. Bryan with the transit instrument, and experiments 
with the pendulum were begun January 2. Dr. Bessels gives the fol- 
lowing account of his 

" PENDULUM EXPERIMENT." 

" The pendulum is an invariable, reversible brass pendulum, of five 
feet 7.75 inches in length, and very near synchronous, but not convert- 
ible. It is swung on steel knife-edges, and suspended in a box of strong 
board with a glass door. In order to disconnect the instrument as far 
as possible from the small building in which it was swung, a square 
hole was cut through the floor in the middle of the western wall of the 
observatory. -Underneath this opening a heavy piece of timber was 
frozen solid to the ground. As the floor of the hut did not rest directly 
on the soil, but was placed on beams of oak, the plank mentioned be- 
fore was entirely isolated from the observatory and became as firm, 
under the influence of the low temperature, after the course of a few 
days as the frozen soil itself upon which it rested. On this piece of 
timber the pendulum-box was screwed in such a manner that the plane 



308 AISIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

in which the pendulum was swung was that of the meridian, and in 
order to secure the utmost steadiness a barrel was placed outside the 
observatory on the same plank on which the pendulum-box rested. 
The barrel was surrounded by a heap of gravel, which was moistened 
with water in order to cement it in a solid manner to the plank. After 
this was done a hole was cut through the wall of the observatory be- 
hind the place where the pendulum-box was fastened. A half-inch 
iron bar, bent at right angles, was passed through this hole, and one 
end of it was fastened to the back wall of the box by means of five 
screws. The other end, which was about three feet over the centre of 
the barrel outside of the observatory, was screwed to a three-inch iron 
bar set up nearly perpendicular in the keg. 

" After having accomplished the work so far, the barrel was filled 
with gravel and sand, over which was poured some water. Before the 
mass was frozen hard we levelled the pendulum-box as nearly as could 
be done, and when it was found to be tolerably level, the bar outside 
was fastened by means of ropes to the wall of the observatory, in 
order to prevent it from giving way and disturbing the position of the 
box. After two days had elapsed, the gravel was frozen solid and the 
ropes were removed. It was found that the box had not changed its 
level ; but at the same time, it was not so steady as might have been 
expected. To secure it better, a hole of three inches' diameter was 
drilled through the floor of the observatory about one foot north of the 
box, and another one of the same diameter and at the same distance 
south of it. Through each of these holes an iron bar, one inch thick 
and three feet long, was driven into the frozen soil and connected with 
the box by means of two other iron bars bent at right angles, similar 
to the one mentioned above, and screwed together in a similar manner. 

" The vibrations (performed in the plane of the meridian) were 
observed with a small direct-vision telescope placed about eight feet 
east of the arc of the pendulum. The point of the swinging knife-edge 
servqd as a mark, and observations were made with vibrations from 
right to left (north to south) and from left to right to correct for 
eccentricity of mark. Each set was begun with the right. An arc of 
a circle of 39.25 inches' radius, divided from the middle each way to five 



AURORAS. — PENDULUM EXPERIMENT. 



309 



o 



degrees, with subdivisions of tenths degrees, was placed over the swing- 
ing knife-edge, and the extreme excursions to the right and left noted. 
The times were recorded by a sidereal chronometer, which was compared 
with five other box chronometers by means of a pocket chronometer 
before and after each set of observations was taken. The pendu- 
lum was swung in four different positions designated by the number 
stamped on the rod near the knife-edge ; the numbers one' and two 
being on one side, and three and four on the reverse. The steel plates 

upon which the knife- 
edge rested were lev- 
elled by a small spirit 
level every time be- 
fore the set was be- 
gun, when the door 
of the box was closed 
and kept shut till the 
set was finished." 

Auroral displays 
had been of frequent 
occurrence through 
the season. Decem- 
ber 29, luminous 
streamers were seen 
extending in an arch 
through the zenith 
from northeast to 
southwest. January 6, beautiful displays Avere seen nearly all day. 
When the sky was clear and the breeze light from the south, lumi- 
nous clouds extended themselves from the southwest in the form 
of an arch. Fantastic forms of light came and went rapidly, and 
there were bands of yellow and white. Again on the 10th, narrow 
bright strips ran up into an arc which passed from the western hori- 
zon through the zenith to the east, parallel with the milky w^ay, and 
distant from it about twelve degrees; at the same time luminous 
streamers of a greenish hue shot up from the east. Like appearances 



a 2 







Cloudy 



310 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

presented themselves on the 12th, 14th, and 16th. At these displays 
the magnetometer was not observed by Mr. Bryan to show any marked 
deflection. 

On the morning of February 21, some very beautiful paraselenae 
were observed ; the thermometer was 30° below zero. Mauch made the 
sketch shown on the preceding page. 

RETURN OF THE SUN. 

On the 28th of February one of the happiest days was experienced. 
The sun would be seen after an absence of one hundred and thirty-two 
days, and at an early hour all hands were on the lookout, some 
perched on the foretop of the "Polaris," others on the top of Provi- 
dence Berg. At 11.55 a small portion of the upper limb was seen for a 
few moments through a gorge in the mountain, and at 12.15 the whole 
orb suddenly appeared from behind Cape Tyson and rolled in full glory 
over the southern fiord. Cheer after cheer went up from the company, 
the men leaping and jumping about with cries of '' Oh ! how warm it is, 
he has not forgotten us." He continued above the horizon till 2 p.m. 
A bottle of wine was given to each of the crew, and cigarettes distri- 
buted among the men forward. 

April 1, the captain of the " Polaris " organized two boats' crews to 
begin the exploration as soon as the state of the ice would permit : 
Mate Chester and Assistant Navigator Tyson were placed respectively 
in command. Dr. Bessels and Mr. Meyer being each second with fpur 
seamen. Orders were given that the boats and crews be ready to start 
the following month, and in accordance with the suggestions which 
have been named. Sledge journeys were in the mean time made to 
different points. Of one of these Mauch remarks : " I have been up to 
Cape Lupton, comparing Hayes' ' Open Polar Sea ' of the 19th of May, 
1861, with the present one. The straits present a vast volume of 
impenetrable pack with not a speck of open water." The temperature 
was still too low for the boat journeys. This state of the ice continued 
with little intermission until the 7th of June, when on a favorable 
report from Cape LujDton Chester's crew was sent thither, Tyson's also 
going forward on the next day. But, on the 11th, ]^.Iate Chester was 



ICE IN "THE OPEN POLAR SEA." 



;ii 



compelled to report at the ship, that, after passing a strip of open 
water leading around the Cape, his boat was crushed by the moving 




pack, and with it the box chronometer, and the much valued Casella 
theodolite and other instruments. A renewed attempt met with not 



312 AlklERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

much greater success, — both this crew and Tyson's succeeding only in 
reaching the mouth of Newman's Bay and there encamping. 

The condition of the " Polaris " had become more unsafe and uncom- 
fortable. A serious leak had been discovered as far back as May 24, 
and before the close of June it was necessary to keep the pump going 
twelve hours out of the twenty-four. By this date, however, there 
seemed a fair expectation that ere long she could be partially sawed 
out and clear herself by the opening of the ice. The northeast gale 
completely cleared the straits to the west and southwest, but died away 
without displacing the berg. After two days' laborious use of the ice- 
saws the stern of the vessel was freed ; she slid from the tongue of the 
berg into an open cut and was once more afloat. There was much 
open water in sight. It was possible that Robeson's Strait was free and 
it was expedient to join the boat parties supposed to be as far north as 
Cape Joseph Henry. The "Polaris " rounded Cape Lupton and seemed 
to have a clear sea before her, but found an impenetrable pack near 
both Cape Sumner and Cape Lieber; she returned to Thank God Har-. 
bor, and again tied up to the berg. On receiving a message from Mate 
Chester that both boats were encamped at Newman's Bay, the Captain 
again started north to pick the boats up, the crews of which were 
needed to take care of the ship and make her ready to move north if 
the opportunity should offer. But this effort, as well as a third made 
during the first week of July, was again totally unsuccessful. Each 
crew was compelled to abandon its boat, and walk back from camp 
to the ship. 

August 1, it had now become a matter of serious moment to attain 
any well-grounded expectation of accomplishing at this late date any- 
thing more towards the object of the expedition ; or indeed, to pro- 
vide for the safety of the vessel. The first of these objects, as will be 
readily seen from the preceding statements, seemed hopeless ; the 
second was fast becoming the central object of all thought. The 
engineers reported that there remained coal enough for only six days' 
steaming, — a supply sufficient to carry the vessel under favorable 
circumstances to Disco. The Captain's journal says: "I have been 
living in hopes that we should get further north, but the season is so 



LEAVING THE HARBOR. 



313 



unfavorable, the ice so compact and close, that if we had an opportunity 
to start north it would not be at all advisable, without a supply of coal, 




to risk it with a vessel like ours at this advanced state of the season. 
We must leave the harbor, for delay now will most probably prove 



314 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



fatal ; we could not keep the vessel afloat in her present condition 
during another Avinter, and will be compelled to run her on the beach." 
On the 11th the ice in the straits was observed to be drifting south ; 
at 4.30 on the day following the engines were started and the ship left 
Thank God Harbor. 

With great care she was piloted between heavy floes, laboring 
heavily all night and at 5 a.m. of the 13th, was passing so swiftly 
through the open water which had been seen from Observatory Bluff, 
that it was necessary to shorten sail on account of the thick fog. 
Entering an impenetrable pack, she was tied to a floe, and drifted some 




HOUSE ON THE FLOE. 



hours slowly down the channel, making, as the ice here and there 
opened, very short advances as far south as 80° 01 , and having coal 
enough for four days' steaming only. Leaking yet more badty, she 
suffered several very severe nips. By the 27th every preparation had 
been made to abandon her. 

The drift during the month of September continued chiefly toward 
the south and west, averaging not much more than a mile a day, 
checked at times by the southerly winds ; on the third of the month 
she was in lat. 79° 34' N., on the 30th only in 79° 02'. Nine hundred 
pounds of coal were used daily in working the pumps, and many plans 
tried for stopping the leak; all without success. As it was evident 



THE ''POLARIS" TO BE ABA]<f DONED.— 



315 



that the party, if saved, must escape to the shore, a house for the floe 
was built, of the dimensions twenty-seven feet by twenty-four ; the 




severe experiences of the month following making, however, new plans 
necessary. October 12, Cairn Point was only two miles to the south- 



316 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

east ; on the 13th Gale Point was due west at noon, and on the 14th 
Northumberland Island was in sight, the ship drifting still more rapidly 
under a northeast gale. 

THE SEPARATION. 

October 15 at 7.30 p. m., the " Polaris " ran among icebergs which 
broke up the floe to which she was attached, and the pack closing up, 
jammed her heavily. She was raised up bodily and thrown over on her 
port side, her timbers cracked with a loud report, and her sides seemed 
to be breaking in; a piece of ice being reported as actually driven 
through. Amid the violence of the storm, the darkness of the night, 
and the grinding of the ice, provisions and stores were ordered to be 
thrown out on the floe. This work was done with extraordinary rapidity 
and development of strength, under the intense excitement of the hour. 
The records of the Expedition work were placed far back upon the floe, 
with a large amount of provisions and clothing, and the two boats which 
remained were also lowered, and with the scow placed upon it. 

At 9.30 by some change in the ice the starboard side of the ship was 
again clear, the vessel was free from pressure, and the cracks in the 
floe began to open, but unfortunately two of these cracks ran through 
the places where the stern anchors had been planted, breaking their 
hold, and the anchors dragging under the strain, she swung round to 
the forward hawser. It slipped. The " Polaris " was rapidly carried 
away from the floe and those upon it. The night was black and 
stormy, and in a few moments nothing of the floe or of the men on it 
could be seen through the drifting snow. Some dark forms were seen 
apparently rushing hopelessly toward the ship; the voice of the steward 
was heard calling out, " Good-bye, 'Polaris ' ! " 



THE TWO PARTIES. 

As soon as the floe disappeared, a muster on board the " Polaris " 
was answered by fourteen of the company, viz. : the captain, the two 
mates, the chief of the scientific corps, and the astronomer, the two 
engineers, carpenter, two firemen, and four seamen. On the floe had 



NEAR DESTRUCTION. 



31T 



been left nineteen, viz. : Captain Tyson, Mr. Meyer the meteorologist, 
the steward, the cook, six seamen, and the Eskimos, Joe and Hans, with 




their wives and children, including a baby born to Hans August 12, 
and then christened Charles Polaris. 



SI 8 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The first call upon the ship's company at this time of deep gloom 
and helplessness, was to be on the most careful lookout for the course 
of the ship, driven as she was rapidly through the rough sea, past the 
lines of bergs ; and to keep if possible afloat. The remembrance that 
the boats had been left on the floe could not lessen the anxiety, and 
the engineers' report of the increasing leakage was alarming in the ex- 
treme. The water was pouring in so rapidly that they feared the fires 
would be put out before steam could be raised to work the pump. If 
the water rose to the fire-plates all must be lost, and at this moment it 
was lapping over the floor of the fire-room. Happil}^ a few pails of hot 
water from the boiler started the four large main-deck pumps, to which 
all hands were instantly called, and by throwing into the fire every 
combustible material, including seal-blubber, the engineers, after more 
than an hour of the severest labor, got the steam pump at work. It rap- 
idly gained on the leak, the wind died away, the moon showed herself 
more frequently, a few stars were seen, and worn-out men gave themselves 
up to broken slumbers. But where were the men on the floe ? 

Those on board waked on the morning of the 16th to a calm and 
clear day. Mr. Chester, from the Crow's Nest, and Henry Hobby, one 
of the seamen, with a good glass examined everything, but could see 
no living creature. They thought they saw some of the provisions and 
stores on the floe four miles distant ; but others felt sure that this was 
black ice or stone or debris. Not one of their comrades could be seen. 

The "Polaris," herself it was thought, must be abandoned; she had 
coal enough for a few days only, when a breeze from the northeast, 
breaking up the ice, and making lanes of water toward the shore, 
brought the ship to land. Her stern-post took the ground, and she was 
secured by heavy hawsers to large grounded hummocks, her starboard 
side toward the beach. Every preparation was now to be made for the 
saving of life on shore until either some providential rescue should 
appear, or the ship's company could build new boats and escape to the 
south; the latter of these two chances it will be found became the 
necessity. The position of the ship was not far from Littleton Island. 

The ship's company were not under anxiety for the means of sus- 
taining life, although their stores of clothing were very scanty, and they 



■ 1 - 





Sim i nT7i :iiiii'i!Jiilliiiii %i :w -i.illiiilill 'liiiiliiliiliiiliii 111;.: I iilljllnil-': liiiliillllililiiilll^^^^ 



320 AJNIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

could hope to be without severe discomfort in the house which had 
been promptly built on shore from the material of the ship. During the 
remainder of the month, and through the winter, and the first months 
of spring, they were assisted by parties of the Eskimos from Etah and 
other points, but, at times, had the usual experience of finding the 
natives a great discomfort, by their frequent visitations and dependence 
upon the ship for supplies. Their first visit, made at the time of the 
''Polaris" taking the shore, was a valued help, and their skill in the 
hunts was the reliance of the ship's company ; on the other hand the 
number of visitors — at one time seventy-seven — was a trying inflic- 
tion by their want of cleanliness. When as many as twenty-three 
began to sleep on the floor of Polaris House, snow-houses were built 
on shore for such as wished to remain near their white friends. By 
May 1, there had been one hundred men, women, and children at 
Polaris House, with as many as one hundred and fifty dogs. 

On the 27th of the month two boats for the journey south had 
been built by the dexterity and care of Mate Chester ; their dimen- 
sions were, length twenty-five feet, breadth five feet, and depth two 
feet five inches. On the two days following, active preparations were 
made for departure ; on the second of these days almost all the land-ice 
broke away, and with it the " Polaris " went adrift, and was carried 
about two hundred yards towards the south, where she again grounded. 
At high tide her upper deck was about two feet below the surface of 
the water. Siemens and Hobby went out to her in the little scow and 
fastened two large hawsers to her from the rocks on shore. It was 
thought she might be driven high and dry upon the beach in the 
autumn, and furnish to the Eskimos a supply of wood. All of her 
which could be made use of by the ship's company had been secured, 
and either worked up or put into a condition for further use on the 
voyage. The rest of her history will follow that of 

THE DEIFT OF THE FLOE PARTY. 

Of the nineteen persons left upon the floe at the time of separation^ 
some were carried off in that dread hour of the dark night, on broken 
pieces separated from the main floe, which was a large one ; they were 



SCANTY PROVISIONS. 321 

brought again upon it by the boats, the articles which had been placed 
on these smaller pieces being of necessity abandoned. At midnight in 
a blinding snow-drift, the whole party huddled together under some 
musk-ox skins. Their provisions were not insufficient for their present 
necessities, and they had besides the two boats, two kayaks, a canvas 
tent, and some instruments of navigation. They were not far from the 
land, and in Tyson had a brave and able captain. 

On their part and on the part of their fellow-sufferers on the 
*' Polaris," the first natural object was to learn each other's position and 
re-unite. Quite remarkably, the floe party twice saw the ship on the 
day following the catastrophe, and made signals for recognition, but 
without success. Neither Chester, who " for several days was up and 
down the mast-head all day every ten or fifteen minutes," nor Hobby, 
famed for his sharp eye-sight, was able to distinguish a living being or 
a signal. Efforts to reach the ship as well as those made to get to land 
were alike unsuccessful. The sole expectation before the men on the 
floe was to drift with it ; possibly at some happy hour, to get into open 
water for a safe boat journey south. 

From this date their story, during the severity of a winter pro- 
longed through March, is one of extreme suffering and extreme forti- 
tude. As early as November the effects of exposure and want of proper 
food were plainly visible. The seals caught by the natives were almost 
the only available provisions, and these were hastily eaten, uncooked, 
and vith the skin and hair on. What little remained of the ship's 
stores was given out by weight by an ingenious scale devised by Mr. 
Meyer. On New Year's day. Captain Tyson dined on about two feet 
of frozen entrails and blubber, and only wished he "had enough of 
that": the natives could catch nothing; "the daily allowance was a 
little mouldy bread." The rapid consumption of the stores was telling 
still more severely on the strength and endurance of all;, signs of 
scurvy appeared. Before the month closed, however, seals were 
caught. 

The first four days of February were dismal ones, as the Eskimos 
could find no w^ater and no seals, and the sufferings of the children 
from hunger were painful to witness. The wind blew violently from 



322 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the north and west, and the snow drifted heavily; the temperature 
ranged from — 16° to — 22° ; but the weather moderating,, on the day 
following these, Hans shot a small seal, which restored somewhat the 
spirits of the party. He had struck it just as it popped its head up 
through the young ice, and brought it from a distance of sixty yards 
by working his way to the floe in the kayak. 

Before the close of the month, the allowance of provisions was again 
reduced one half — to a few ounces a day — the smallest quantity with 
which life could be sustained. A bear track was seen but lost; but 
thirty-seven dovekies were brought in, every part of which, except the 
feathers, was eaten. These birds are very small, twenty or thirty of 
them making only a moderate meal; nor do they make warm blood 
like the seal. The thermometer stood — 30°. 

After such long fasting, a too free indulgence upon an ook-gook, 
caught shortly afterward, brought new suffering, especially to those 
who ate of the liver, a number of whom were sick for a week, losing the 
skin of their faces, hands, and chests. So crazy had their appetites be- 
come that their hands and faces, at this feasting inside the igloo, were 
smeared with blood. On the 27th a fine large sea-bear was caught, of 
which every part, except the liver, tasted good. 

April 1, it was found necessary to abandon the now wasted and 
unsafe floe ; the party took to their only remaining boat. It was one 
intended to carry six or eight only ; but at this time she had in her 
twelve men, two women, and five children, with the tent, some 
skins, and provisions. Finding her loaded too deep, one hundred 
pounds of meat, and nearly all the clothing were thrown overboard. 
Great pains were taken to preserve Captain Hall's writing-desk and 
papers. After making from fifteen to twenty miles south and west in 
the pack, a landing on the floe was again made at noon and a tent 
pitched. Seals were now so easily caught that no apprehension of 
want was felt. 

On the 5th, under a westward gale and a fearfully high sea, pieces 
again and again broke from the floe, making it necessary to haul every- 
thing back towards its centre, one piece carrying Joe's hut, its inmates, 
however, escaping at the sound of the cracking ice. 



ALMOST PERISHED. 323 

The 19th was, perhaps, the most dangerous of all the clays experi- 
enced by this party. At 9 P. M. a sudden alarm was given by the man 
on watch, when instantly a sea washed over the floe, carrying awa}' the 
tent, the skins, and most of the bed-clothing. The one object now was 
to save the boat, for on this their lives depended; to do this it was 
necessary for the men to stand on each side and hold on with all their 
strength. The strong ook-gook lines which were fastened to projecting 
points in the ice, frequently parted, and every fifteen or twenty minutes 
a sea came, carrjdng the men with it to the opposite edge of the ice. 
Yet they held on from nine o'clock in the evening to seven the next 
morning, when they landed on a small piece of ice. The fatigue and 
danger could never have been borne but for the three meals made on 
the seal last shot by Joe. 

And yet he was once more to be their preserver ; for on the 22d, 
when the men were half drowned, cold, without shelter, and without 
food, on his fourth venture out on the ice, he saw a bear coming towards 
him. Hurrjang back for his gun, he returned with Hans, and the two 
from behind the hummock, killed him instantly. But for this success the 
party must have perished. 

THE EESCUE. 

Relief, however, was now at hand. When the fog opened on the 
morning of April 30 a steamei- was seen close to the floe, and at the 
boat's signals her head was soon turned towards them, and one hun- 
dred men on deck and aloft were returning three cheers given by the 
shipwrecked people. 

The ship proved to be the sealing barkentine ''Tigress," Captain 
Bartlett, of Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The position in which 
she lay was lat. 53° 35' N., off Grady Harbor, Labrador. The party 
thus rescued came in safety to the harbor of St. John's, May 12, and 
were brought to the Washington Navy Yard by the U. S. Steamer 
"Frolic," Commander C. M. Schoonmaker, June 5. The northeastern 
coast had been found blockaded by the ice and the prevailing east 
winds, and Commander Schoonmaker had passed more than one hun- 
dred bergs and floes in a single night. 



324 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

It is the judgment of competent officers that nothing in all history 
has equalled the preservation of this ice-floe party : even the babe was 
saved. Too much credit can scarcely be given to the chief of the party, 
to the natives on whom all were dependent, or to the individuals them- 
selves for their heroic fortitude. Nor is it less remarkable as repre- 
sented in the report made by the Hon. Secretary and his colleagues, 
June 16, 1873, that, " after their rescue, although enfeebled by scanty 
diet and long exposure, and mentally depressed by their isolated and 
unhappy situation, so fearfully prolonged and of such uncertain issue, 
the general health of these hardy voyagers remained good, and when 
their trials and anxieties were ended, they soon regained their usual 
strength." The drift of the floe had been that of one hundred and 
ninety days. For the interesting details of the sufferings, hardy en- 
durance, and final safety of officers, seamen, and Eskimos, the reader is 
referred to the volume of Admiral Davis, which has been named. The 
track of the floe will be found marked on the circumpolar map (Pocket 
of the present volume). 



RELIEF SHIPS SENT FOR THE RESCUE OF THE "POLARIS. 

The information brought by the floe-party concerning the situation 
of the " Polaris," when last seen by them, induced the Navy Depart- 
ment to take prompt measures for the rescue of her officers and crew. 
Two vessels were dispatched, the sealing vessel ''Tigress," and the 
U. S. steamer "Juniata." The "Tigress" was further fitted out at 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard for all the dangers of Arctic navigation, and 
the possibility of wintering in the north ; this delayed her sailing until 
July 14. Her higher officers were : Commander J. A. Greer ; Lieuten- 
ant Commander H. C. White ; Lieutenants Wilkins, Berry, and Sebree ; 
with Captain Tj^son, ice-master, and ranking as Acting Lieutenant. 

The "Juniata" was made ready to carry coal and other supplies for 
the " Tigress," and to prosecute the search herself as far as was prudent 
for a vessel not built or strengthened for Arctic navigation. She was 
under the command of Commander D. L. Braine, whose chief under- 
officers were Lieutenant Commander Merriman, and Lieutenants De- 



CRUISE OF THE LAUNCH. 325 

Long, He, McClellan, and Chipp. The ''Juniata" entered Sukker- 
toppen July 17, Holsteinborg on the 18th, and Disco on the 29th. Here 
Commander Braine found the stores left by the " Congress " and the 
" Polaris " apparently in good order ; he left coal and other stores for 
the " Tigress." At Upernavik, after consultation with Governor Ru- 
dolph, he endeavored to open communication with the " Polaris " by 
means of the Eskimos; they refused to go North. He learned that 
early in June two English steam-whalers had touched at Disco, and 
having been informed of the rescue of the floe party and probable con- 
dition of the " Polaris " had promised to keep a lookout for her on their 
passage north. He concluded that these whalers would examine the 
western shore of Baffin's Bay, and if the east coast were now examined 
by the steam-launch of the "Juniata," the "Tigress" might soon pro- 
ceed on the direct route to Northumberland Island. 



Belongs cruise in the little "juniata. 

The launch was sheathed, her bows were armed with iron, and 
her propeller guarded with an iron frame : her task would be to skirt 
the fast ice of the coast, collect all the information possible, and re- 
turn by August 1, which would probably be before the arrival of 
the " Tigress " at Upernavik. She was provisioned for sixty days, 
and supplied with coal for seventeen days' full steaming, and was 
commanded by Lieutenant DeLong, whose officers were Lieutenant 
C. W. Chipp, and Ensign S. H. May with Mr. H. W. Dodge ice- 
pilot. The little "Juniata" steamed northward, winding her way 
among the icebergs and keeping close into land. August 4, she 
was shut up in a pack consisting, as far as could be seen, of solid ice 
from one to two feet thick, with large hummocks and icebergs ; on the 
next morning she again entered the open sea, and on the 8th saw Cape 
York, but between it and the boat a solid pack of three or four feet in 
thickness through which an opening was looked for in vain. 

The little launch was now in great danger ; the wind had increased 
to a gale, the sea-spray was thrown over the tops of the bergs ; the 
launch at times was half buried, shipping large quantities of water, and 



326 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

it rained in torrents. She remained in this condition for thirtj^ hours, 
during which a fire was lighted under the boiler only by pouring oil 
plentifully over cotton waste and junk, as the matches and tinder were 
wet, and it was several hours before a friction match, kept near the 
skin, had dried enough to be lighted. The return to port was neces- 
sary. DeLong therefore went back by another route, that of the mid- 
channel, and on the 12th communicated with the " Tigress," which had 
now arrived at Tessuissak, and rejoined the " Juniata " at Upernavik. 

August 31, the 'Juniata" sailed for St. John's, and on arriving 
there and informing the Navy Department that the officers and crew of 
the " Polaris " were reported to have sailed south early in June in boats, 
was instructed by the Secretary to continue the search ; but at mid- 
night of September 18, when sixty-five miles north of St. John's, was 
overtaken by the British steamer " Hector," which informed the com- 
mander of the safety of the "Polaris" party ; grateful news, which, hav- 
ing been telegraphed from Dundee, where the "Polaris" party was, was 
taken out to sea from St. John's by U. S. Consul Mollon. 

In the meantime the " Tigress " had sailed from Upernavik, July 11, 
examined Netik Harbor, on the 14th, and the same day, landed at the 
spot occupied by the Polaris crew the preceding winter. 

The Polaris House was still standing, with its bunks, mattrasses, 
furniture, galley, etc., but provisions, instruments, books, and stores were 
everywhere scattered along the shore. The "Tigress" took on board all 
the manuscripts, a mutilated log-book and all other books not torn into 
pieces ; no cairn or place of concealment for records was found. Com- 
mander Greer was told by the chief of the Eskimos that, some time 
after the departure of the crew of the " Polaris," she had broken from 
her hawsers, forced further down towards the passage between Little- 
ton Island and the mainland, and sunk. The broken hawsers were 
seen, and the chief said he saw the ship go down. 

At this date an ice-pack extended across Smith Sound northward as 
far as the eye could reach. Commander Greer stood southward, passed 
Cape York near enough to have seen signals, but could learn nothing 
of the lost party on his way, or at Tessuissak or Upernavik. He re- 
turned to Godhavn. In accordance with his instructions to make 



ALL OF THE POLARIS PARTY SAFE. 327 

thorough search, after refitting at Disco, he crossed Davis Straits and 
tried to get into Exeter Sound, but found the ice packed tight to the 
shore. October 4, he made another run to the northward without 
meeting the objects of his search, and on the 10th of November an- 
chored in New York. He had come to the reasonable conclusion that 
the Polaris party had been picked up by a whaler, having learned on 
this cruise that nine had expected to sight Cape York. The rescue 
thus anticipated by Commander Greer had been effected under the 
followino' circumstances. 



RESCUE OF THE POLARIS PARTY BY THE " RAVENSCRAIG." 

Six weeks after the rescue of the floe party under Tyson, the four- 
teen officers and men of the Exj)edition who had been left on the 
" Polaris " were ready to take up their still hopeful journey to the 
soutward. While waiting the day of departure, Mr. Bryan and Dr. 
Bessels had visited Dr. Hayes' Fort Foulke in order to determine the 
meridian difference between that place and Polaris House. 

The stores which could not be carried away were now carefully 
deposited,* and on the 3d of June, 1872, the two boats' crews, under 

* Captain Nares in the report of his voyage to the Polar sea says : 

On a visit to Life-boat Cove, July 28, 1875, it was found that no part of the Polaris 
house remained intact, but pieces of wood, cases, empty tins, and other " odds and ends " 
marked the site. Within the cairn made on the departure of Budington's party nothing 
was found, but apart from each other, and without any protection were found four or 
five boxes each covered with heavy stones and containing many small articles of great use 
to the Eskimos, yet apparently undisturbed. A few books were found, but no pendulum, 
transit instrument, or chronometer. From the stores left by the ''Polaris," the English 
Expedition of 1875 received much benefit, an acknowledgment of which will be found in 
Captain Nares' Report. Captain Budington had made three deposits ; lists of which will 
be found on pages 668 and 669 of " The jSTorth Polar Expedition of 1871." Captain Nares 
says : "But for the valuable deposits of provisions established by the 'Polaris' at Hall's 
Rest, Lieutenant Beaumont would have found the greatest difficulty in obtaining sup- 
plies." 

August 19, 1876, Captain Allen Young, of the "Pandora" (late the " Jeannette"), on 
a visit to Polaris Camp, found some relics of Hall's Expedition which, with the original 
records left on Littleton Island in a cairn by Captain Hartstene, U. S.X., when cruising 
in 1855 for the relief of Kane, he forwarded to the U. S. Government. 

A bag of wheat was found at Polaris Bay, which was sent to the Arctic regions from 
the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, for the purpose of ascertaining the power of 




BUDINGTON'S PARTY LANDS ON NORTHUMBERLAND ISLAND. 



"SHIP AHOY." 329 

Captain Budington and Mate Chester, left the shore of the Polaris 
house, lat. 78° 23' 30" N., long. 73° 21' 10" W. at 2.30 a.m., and stood 
down the coast with a fair wind, Chester being ahead. South of Cape 
Alexander they came to a loose pack which they could not enter, and 
returned to Sorfalik. Launched again on the 4th, they shaped a straight 
course for Hakluyt Islands to which they pulled by 9.20 p.m. ;^ sleeping 
with some comfort among the rocks, but in the morning finding them- 
selves covered with snow. On the 9th they effected a temporary land- 
ing on Northumberland Island, and on the 13tli hauled up on Dalrymple 
Island. 

On the 23d, after nearly losing one of the boats, caught between the 
floe and the pack, their rescue came in lat. 75° 38' N., long. 6b° 35' W. 
At 10 A.M. of this eventful day. Mate Chester had electrified the 
company by calling out "Ship ahoy!" The "Ravenscraig" of Kirk- 
caldy, Scotland, a three-masted steamer, was distant about ten miles 
only, fastened to the land-ice. The Polaris flag was hoisted on two 
oars lashed together, and the barque answered the signal by running 
up her ensign as soon as her watch in the Crow's Nest could make out 
the boat flag. They had at first taken the Polaris men for Eskimos, or 
for a boat party from some lost whaler ; this last idea had been cor- 
rected on their seeing that the people on the ice wore hats, since all 
the Scotch whalers wear caps. Captain Allen promptly sent ten men 
with ship-biscuit in their pockets, to relieve their anticipated exhaus- 

cereals to resist the extremes of cold. After an exposure for at least four successive winters 
and three summers at Polaris Bay, out of a small sample tried at Kew, England, by Sir 
Joseph Hooker, sixty-two per cent germinated ; the rest of this grain was returned to the 
Smithsonian Institution. 

All the records and articles brought from Polaris Bay and the boat-camp in Newman 
Bay, together with the American ensign which was hoisted over the grave of Captain 
Hall, during the stay of our men in the neighborhood, were, on the return of the Expedi- 
tion to England, forwarded by the British Admiralty to the United States Government. 
A chronometer found at the boat-camp, after four years' exposure to the vicissitudes of 
Arctic temperature, kept excellent time from the period of its arrival on board the "Dis- 
covery," until that ship returned to England in November, 1876. Sent by the Admiralty 
to Washington, it was, after being cleaned, issued to the U.S.S. '* Quinnebaugh," on which 
ship it again did good service. Returned to the U. S. Naval Observatory on the termina- 
tion of the cruise, it was reported by Lieutenant Moore as late as January, 1882, as having- 
an excellent temperature rate. It is a trophy. 




Ti'SO^s'S CREW SIGHTING THE SCOTCH WHALER WHICH RESCUED THEM OFF LABRADOR. 



AWARDS BY CONGRESS. 331 

tion, to bring them on board, and to communicate the grateful intelli- 
gence that their comrades on the ice-floe had been picked up. 

The feelings of Captain Budington's party may be imagined. They 
had never doubted their ability to reach the Danish settlements, had 
accomplished one-half the distance, had abundance of provisions, and 
were inured to hardship, but the most dangerous part of their journey 
through the opening ice, the gales of wind, and heavy seas were still 
before their small, shallow, flat-bottomed, unseaworthy boats. At 6 p.m. 
the rescued men were on their weary tramp over the rotten ice and 
soft snow, arriving at the ship at midnight. Captain All^n, his sur- 
geon, mate, and crew took every care of the suffering party. 

The whaler not having finished her cruise, and being unfitted for 
carrying passengers, transferred them to other vessels homeward bound. 
, Eleven arrived at Dundee in the " Arctic " September 19, and at New 
York, October 7, the remaining three reached Dundee in the " Eric " 
October 22, and New York in November. 

By an act of Congress approved June 23, 1874, compensation and 
acknowledgment were authorized to be made to the owners, ofiicers and 
sailors of all the relief ships, and also to each of the men who walked 
on the ice to rescue Captain Budington's party. The captains of the 
*'Ravenscraig," "Arctic," "Intrepid," and "Eric," were further informed 
by the Navy Department that each was at liberty to purchase a gold 
pocket chronometer, and to have inscribed thereon that it was a token 
of the gratitude of the United States for their kindness to the officers 
and men of the " Polaris." 

RESUME OF hall's THREE EXPEDITIONS. — HIS CHARACTER.* 

The three Expeditions of Captain Hall, together with the weary 
labors of preparation preceding each of them, are his best memorials. 
The narratives of his first voyage and of his third — the "Polaris" — are 

* The judgments expressed in this Resume, which was prepared by the author for the 
close of " Hall's Second Expedition," have been since fully confirmed by those expressed 
in a number of letters received from Arctic voyagers, including Captain Allen Young. The 
truthfulness of some of Hall's statements in his notes will be found confirmed in the next 
chapter of this volume. And it should be said here, once for all, in reply to a recent com- 



332 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

sufficient to disprove the idea sometimes hastily expressed that he was 
a mere ignorant and visionary dreamer ; and the impress on the minds 
of those who have inspected the precise and often graphic journals of 
his Expeditions, has been such as the evidences of a continuous frank 
truthfulness create, — the manifestation of an indomitable will, energy, 
and perseverance in the devout pursuit of the two objects which have 
been discussed. He believed them attainable, and believed himself 
called to them as to his life-work. 

The testimony of one who, next to his constant friend, Mr. Grinnell, 
could best estimate his character, is emphatically clear to the point that 
Hall was a single-minded, trusting man, who believed that others were 
like himself, and that he would find them such. In this he often found 
an experience of disappointment. His enthusiasm concerning his 
favorite object was extreme and abiding, and gave tone and color to all 
his words and acts. His very want of general knowledge, and his 
deficiencies in special departments of science made him more fit for an 
explorer than a scientist could have been. He looked upon explorations 
and all which appertained to the increase of geographical knowledge as 
far above all else ; and this explains the career of one who had such a 
childlike purpose. The more information he could gather the happier 
he felt. It was indeed the disappointment produced by the obstacles 
thrown in his way on his third Expedition which probably caused his 
death. In the lack of all personal acquaintance with Hall, this judg- 
ment, expressed by Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, of Brooklyn, and confirmed 
by that of others in the city of New York, as well as in New London, 
and Washington, has been the more willingly received by the writer of 
this narrative. 

Official and other public acknowledgments of Hall's worth have 
freely appeared in the language of the National Academy of Sciences 
at the time of the going out of the Third Expedition, in the trust re- 
plaint from the English Captain, W. P. Snow, that " Hall was not the author of the 'Arctic 
Researches,' published by Harper Brothers, in 1864," that Hall's journals and note- 
books of his Second and Third Expeditions so closely exhibited the same style and 
characteristics with the language of the "Researches" of 1864-69 as to identify him un- 
questionably as the author of that volume. Captain Snow was for a short time only Hall's 
assistant in preparing it. His own English naval record is acknowledged. 



TRIBUTE FROM THE FRENCH. 



333 



posed in him by the Executive when granting liim the commission of 
Captain of the " Polaris " in 1871, in the award of the gold medal of 
" The Roquette Foundation " by the Societe de G-eographie of Paris, 
and in the tributes paid to his worth by Captain Sir George Nares atT 
his grave in the far north, and in his official report of the English 
Expedition of 1875. 

The extreme discomforts, exposures, and labors incident 'to a resi- 
dence among the Eskimos were not unforeseen when even he entered 





Medal awarded by the Geographical Society of Paris, to Captain C. F. Hall, as the "promoter-in- 
chief of the Polaris Expedition, and as otherwise due him for his previous labors.'' For the Report of 
the Commission of Award, V. A. Malte-Brun, chief, see the Bulletin of the Society for the year 1875, 
and Admiral Davis' volume, page 625. An electrotype of this medal, struck at the Mint in Paris, was 
part of the Arctic Collection placed by the U. S. Naval Observatory at the Centennial. 

upon his First Expedition ; and his experience then must have neces- 
sarily led him to anticipate that greater trials would be his lot on a 
longer banishment from civilized life, and the comforts of home. But 
he avowed with sincerity that he would be willingly absent for a term 
of ten years at least if he saw a prospect of success. He felt that he 
could trust his two Eskimo friends during so long a stay, and yet it 
seems surprising that with even their help he could on his second 
voyage control unharmed so many of the Innuits, subordinate their 
chief, Ou-e-la, to his purpose, and secure with such slender resources as 
much success as he attained. His notes say : " Nothing but an experi- 
ence of years could enable me to control such untamable eagles." Cer- 
tainly the presence or at times expected return of the whalers to 



334 AMEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Kepuise Bay and other localities, had much to do with his ability to 
maintain his authority, and next to this was his ability to supply the 
wants of the natives when suffering ; and yet, perhaps, above both of 
these, must be placed his politic concessions to their low prejudices and 
his self-control. Very frequently in his journals appear proofs of hasty 
judgments, and of suspicions of evil intentions against himself by the 
whaling captains as well as the Innuits, but as frequently appear also 
proofs of his repressing such feelings, and of his recording his regrets 
at having given place to them in his heart or in his notes. The numer- 
ous delays experienced by his restless spirit from the indolence, and 
especially from the superstitions of the natives — delays too at critical 
times — were trying to the temper. They were placed to the wrong 
account when they gave room for his imagination to credit them to 
purposes of evil. But his feelings were naturally stirred with some- 
thing besides pity when he found himself unable to obtain proper assis- 
tance in the hut, or move forward on a journey because the Innuits 
would neither eat nor suffer others to eat on a given day, or work until 
a certain time was passed, — to estimate all which aright. Hall must be 
thought of as a single white man alone among the degraded, and habitu- 
ating himself to such degraded modes of life with them as can be 
excused only in the light of his subordinating everything to his one 
purpose, and of his so living in order to avoid the visits of the scurvy. 
He experienced none of these. 

It will be a harsh criticism which pronounces his judgment defect- 
ive or his exercise of it hasty. He demonstrated the correctness of 
the belief he entertained from the first, of his being able to live for a 
long period out of the pale of civilized life by his own passing through 
it thus without any protracted or extreme suffering. He was not then 
far out of the way in supposing that some of the Franklin men might 
possibly be found as survivors among the Eskimos. 

His ability, industry, and perseverance manifest themselves in the 
long continued absence from the endearments of his country and home ; 
and in his victories over what seemed to be insurmountable. Through 
the years of struggle for an outfit, hope was more than once nearly 
crushed at the moment when success seemed sure ; at the time of his 



FASCINATION FOR ARCTIC LIFE. 335 

first landing on tlie Second Expedition, the mistake of his captain cost 
him a whole j^ear's advance ; on his first practicable advance movement 
his frightened party then turned back their steps ; when provisions and 
stores were again ready, he could secure no team, and, after a severe 
journey in mid-Avinter on his return, could obtain no men; and when 
at last at the end of the fifth year of the Second Expedition — the ninth 
of expectation and of effort — he stood on King AVilliam Land, it was 
to be hurried away before the summer sun could lift the snow pall 
from the treasures he was seeking. 

Would it not have been the record of many others that after grap- 
pling with some only of such difficulties, they would have found them- 
selves at the close of any one year of disappointment, safe on board the 
hospitable whaler? Would not many have justified themselves when 
returning to their country and reporting insuperable obstacles? Ex- 
peditions largel}" equipped and led by men of Arctic experience and 
brave heart, have more than once so returned to be justified and 
honored by their countrymen. Hall had an unconquerable determina- 
tion to accomplish something, and if this be called a mere enthusiasm, 
it was an enthusiasm which led him to endure and fight his way, and 
patiently await new issues and endure and conquer. Without such an 
iron will, he would never have remained within these desolate regions 
through five Arctic winters, enduring the squalid wretchedness of the 
snow-huts ; nor have made his sledge journeys to Pelly Bay, to Cape 
Weynton, to Ig-loo-lik, to Fury and Hecla Straits, to Lyons Inlet, and to 
King William Land; aggregating more than three thousand miles. 
His voyage out to the Arctic Regions and return, and his surveying, 
work around Repulse Bay, and the sledge journeys just referred to, foot 
up a considerable excess over ten thousand miles. 

It has not been out of place to say that besides the extreme of 
enthusiasm, a fascination for Arctic life laid hold upon hini — the 
fascination which in one form or another makes the traveller restless 
while off from his journey as it does the sailor when off the sea ; a fas- 
cination which has been one of the features of the most interest in all 
the records of the Arctic Explorations, notably in the case of the 
renewed voyage of Franklin when he with Back, went out on his second 



336 AI^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

land journey. If it seem strange to the landsman that the shipwrecked 
mariner is ready for a new cruise, and in his own feelings sometimes, 
safer in a storm at sea than on land, it is as strange to contemplate the 
eager return to Arctic adventure and dangers by such sufferers as Frank- 
lin, Back, Richardson, Hall, their comrades and followers. Faith in an 
overruling Providence and in the cardinal doctrines of the Christian 
religion was evidently inwrought in them ; in Hall, probabl}', from the 
date of his earliest home-training. Full expression of this is found in 
his journals. 

The weakest part of the record for the years of which the narrative, 
especially of the Second Expedition, speaks, is, perhaps, his permitting 
himself to turn aside from the long-proposed journey to King William 
Land and lose a year by his visit to the Straits of Fury and Hecla. 
His motive, however, for this was sincerely in keeping with the purposes 
of the Expedition. The possibility of yet finding a survivor of Frank- 
lin's party again loomed up before his enthusiastic view, and he thought 
himself fully justified in making search for traces of those of whom the 
Innuits so confidently and unitedly spoke as existing in the peninsula. 
In confirmation of this last remark, it is in place here to refer to the 
following recent statement in relation to this visit to these Straits. 
Captain William Adams, of the Dundee whaler " Arctic," on his return 
from his cruise of 1881, reported that while his ship was within fifteen 
miles of Fury and Hecla Straits, a young and intelligent Eskimo told 
him that when he was a young man in his father's hut, three men came 
over the land toward Repulse Bay, and that one of them was a great 
captain when he died. The other two were in sore distress, and cried 
very much, stating that he was the "anigak," or great captain. These 
two lived some time in his father's hut, and he showed Captain Adams 
the spot on the chart where they were buried. The Eskimo, continuing 
his narrative, said that seventeen persons started from two vessels 
which had been lost far to the westward, but only three were able to 
survive the journey to his father's hut. Strange traditions ! 

From all the information furnished by the Eskimo, Captain Adams 
has no doubt that the vessels referred to were those of the Franklin 
Expedition, and that the great captain mentioned was Lieutenant 



TRIBUTES TO HALL BY THE ENGLISH. 337 

Crozier. "Assuming that what the Eskimo stated was correct, it is 
beyond doubt that the members of the Franklin Expedition were 
attempting to reach the Hudson Bay Territory." Judging from the 
present age of the native, Captain Adams is of opinion that his allusion 
to having seen the men when he was a young man must refer to a 
period some thirty-five years ago. Captain Adams is the navigator who 
rendered assistance to the floe party from the "Polaris," which was 
rescued by the " Ravenscraig." If Hall's judgment was at fault, his 
motives were as commendable as they had been when expressed in the 
draughting of the plans for his first outfit, or when he wrote in answer 
to Lady Franklin's proposal that he should go out a third time for the 
record: "As for pay, I should ask nothing." 

Sir George Nares, commanding the late English Expedition of 1875, 
has recorded in his official report to Parliament his testimonials to 
Hall's fidelity as an Arctic explorer : — 

" The coast-line was observed to be continuous for about thirty 
miles, forming a bay bounded toward the west by the United States 
range of mountains, with Mounts Mary and Julia, and Cape Joseph 
Henry, agreeing so well with Hall's description, that it was impossible 
to mistake their identity. Their bearings also, although differing up-' 
wards of thirty degrees from those of the published chart, agreed pre- 
cisely with his original report. It was impossible to mistake their 
identity." 

hall's grave. 

The grave in which Captain Hall was buried, Nov. 10, 1871 (see 
Chap. VIIL, page 298), in the month of July following, was found un- 
disturbed, and was then made to present a better appearance than had 
been found practicable in November, when the ground was froz^en. It 
was surrounded with stones, soil transported to it and a few plants 
set out. A head-board bore the inscription : — 

To the memory of 

C. F. Hall, 

Late Commander of the North Polar Expedition ; died Nov. 8, 1871. 

Aged 50 years. 



338 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



To which inscription in July, 1872, Mate Chester added the words: — 

" I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth on me, though he were dead, 
yet shall he live." 




CAPTAIN HALL'S GRAVE. 

On the 13th of May, 1876, in the presence of twenty-four officers 
and men, Captain Stephenson, of the English Expedition, hoisted the 
American flag over the grave of Captain Hall, and at the foot erected a 
brass tablet which had been prepared in England, bearing the follow- 
ing inscription : — 

Sacred to the memory of 

Captait^ C. F. Hall, 

Of the U. S. S. ''Polaris," 

^'Who sacrificed his life in the advancement of Science, November 8, 1871. 

This tablet has been erected by the British Polar Expedition of 1875, 

Who, following in his footsteps, have profited by his experience." 

He also reported to Captain Nares that the grave was found in an excel- 
lent state of preservation. The willow planted by Tyson was still alive. 



JOE AND HANNAH. 339 

THE ESKIMOS. — HALL's COINIP ANIONS. 

At the close of this narrative of Hall's work, it may be conceded as 
something due in simple justice to the two Eskimos who have been so 
frequently named within the previous pages, that a few items of their 
personal history be recorded. Through all the trials of Hall's three 
expeditions — a period of more than ten years, — they were not only 
his steadfast friends, but indispensable supporters, without whom he 
could never have carried forward his investigations, or have kept, in 
some emergencies, even his life among the Innuits. Joe Ebierbing 
was, as has frequently appeared in the narrative. Hall's dependence 
as hunter. On repeated occasions, by his native skill in the use 
of the lance and line and by his readily learned use of the rifle, he 
procured food in the darkest days of wan^, not for Hall alone, but 
often for the less skilful and suffering Innuits around him; mate- 
rially aiding Hall by this beyond the bare support of the lives saved, 
and gaining for the expedition lasting good will and help. Hannah 
was perhaps the more intelligent, and, as a woman, naturally of 
quicker perception in the things of every day life, which would 
serve the necessities of the white man among strangers. She proved 
an interpreter without whom every effort to understand the natives of 
Cumberland Gulf, of Repulse Bay, of Ig-loo-lik, of Pelly Bay, or of 
the country on the route to King William Land would have been 
hopeless, -^ every one of Hall's journeys and talks with the Innuits 
nearly useless. 

But beyond all this, the heroic conduct of these two on the last of 
Hall's voyages claims a tribute. It must be very plain to every reader 
of the narrative of that " Polaris " voyage that these Eskimos saved the 
lives of Tyson's party on the fearful ice-floe drift of more than one 
thousand two hundred miles. 

In the early days of that suffering, when the floe was drifting past 
Cumberland Sound and was nearly opposite their native place, the 
temptation presented itself to this couple to escape to the mainland. 
" Father Hall " was gone from them, and, at that time there were just 
grounds of fear within their breasts that, in the almost famishing con- 



340 AI^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

dition of the white men, some of them might make the Eskimos the 
first victims, if the direst necessity should come. 

Hannah listened to no words of such persuasion, but strengthened 
Joe's purpose to remain ; a hunter for the seal and the bear was i;hus 
still to be at hand for the saving of men whose skill in such hunts was 
plainly as unequal to their need as was their diminished strength. Of 
his true worth in this respect, the most convincing proof came toward 
the last days of those dark months. The story of this is told in full on 
the 568th page of Admiral Davis's Narrative, where it will be found re- 
corded that on the 22d April, 1873, when Tyson's party on the floe, 
weakened by their six months' exposure, were on that day, half 
drowned, cold, and almost literally without a morsel of food, Joe, on 
going out for the fourth time to watch, saw a bear coming toward the 
party, hurried back for his gun, and, requesting all hands to lie per- 
fectly still, returned with his companion Hans, and with his aid in- 
stantly killed the ferocious animal. At this point in his narrative 
Admiral Davis says: "But for the rifles in this extreme emergency, 
this story would not have been written." 

Joe and Hannah were natives of Cumberland Inlet, where Captain 
S. O. Budington, of Groton, first met them in the fall of 1851, on the 
Island of Kim-ick-su-ic, — an island that gets its name from its flat 
centre, which, covered with grass, gives it the look of a dog-skin. 
Captain Budington wintered there in about Jat. 65° 30', long. 62°, when 
in command of the " McLellan," of New London. Hannah, who was 
born at Cape Sorrel on the west side of Davis Strait, was at the time 
of Captain Budington's visit only about twelve years of age, and Joe, 
who was then married to another woman, seemed to Budington at that 
time " as old as he does to-day." Cape Sorrel was a whaling station, . 
much visited by English and American sailors, and frequented by the 
Eskimos of Cumberland Gulf for trade. A few years afterward, Mr. 
Bolby, a merchant of Hull, became much interested in these two per- 
sons, and took them with him in his own vessel on his return voyage 
from the Gulf. In England he treated them as his guests with great 
liberality. They were married in his house in the presence of a large 
company, and, with Mr. Bolby, visited in their native costume many 



LIFE' AT GROTON. 341 

places in England and Scotland, and were presented to Queen Victoria, 
and dined with her and the Prince Consort. Hannah always spoke of 
the Queen as " Very kind, very much lady." 

Hannah's willingness to leave her country seems to have been pro- 
duped by her desire to keep her husband with her ; he was at the time 
being persuaded to leave her for another wife. His uncle U-gack was re- 
ported as having had twenty wives, three of them living with him at one 
time. At the time of Hall's return to the United States, Joe, who had 
been sick, was ordered by the an-ge-ko to take another wife as the only 
way to get well ; but to his own best future success, as is well known,-* 
he came over with Hannah to the United States. His father had died 
when quite young : his half brother Ita-loo, left on the island^ was met 
with in the year 1873 by Captain Greer, U. S. N., of the relief ship 
*' Tigress," came with him to New York, spent the winter in Groton, 
and died shortly after getting back to his native land. 

Joe and Hannah after, as has been shown, assisting Hall in his pre- 
parations for the Second Expedition, and closely attending him through 
the years 1864-69, again accompanied him on his last voyage in the 
"Polaris," 1871, and returned to the United States with the floe party. 
They were as much attached to "Father Hall " as he was to them. 

In a home purchased for them by him, in Groton, Connecticut, they 
soon commenced housekeeping in 1873, readily adapting themselves 
to the customs of civilized life. Joe became a good carpenter and farm 
hand, retaining his old love for fishing. Hannah was soon skilful in 
making up, with the help of her sewing-machine, furs and other salable 
articles for the people of New London and Groton. 

Their first child, Tu-ke-li-ke-ta, had died in New York in the winter 
of 1863 ; the second had been buried on the first sledge journey to 
King William Land in 1866 ; a third, which Joe adopted in 1868, with 
the consent of its parents and by the gift of a sled to them from Hall, 
came with him to the United States in 1869. Hannah named the child 
Sylvia, after her friend Miss Griunell. The girl was an intelligent 
scholar at the Groton school until her death in 1875. 

The health of this couple had been repeatedly broken during the 
long period of suffering of the years 1864 to 1869 ; and they do not 



342 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 




OU-SE-GONG (JEANNIE). 



seem to have been readily acclimated in the United States. The ter- 
^ rible experience of the ice- 

floe especially had left 
severe traces on them. 
During the year 1876^ 
Hannah suffered much 
with that fatal disease 
consumption ; a disease 
which carries off the larg- 
er number of her race. It 
had been long gaining 
upon her. She bitterly 
felt the loss of her last 
child and the absence of 
her husband, who, after 
having been again out in 
the Arctic regions with 

Captain Allen Young, of the "Pandora," was then doing good service 

on board a vessel belong- 
ing to the United States 

Fish Commission. Han- 
nah had become a true 

Christian ; read her Bible, 

and showed a quiet, good 

life. After a season of 

protracted suffering, 

throughout which she was 

tenderly cared for by Mrs. 

Captain Budington and 

other friends in Groton, 

she breathed her last, as 

the old year went out, 

December 31, 1876, at the 

early age of thirty-eight. 

Her death was tranquil. Among her last words was the petition, 

" Come, Lord Jesus, and take thy poor creature home I " 




KUD-LUP-PA-MUNE (ABBOTT). 



THE GROTON CEMETERY. 843 

In June, 1878, Joe again sailed for the Arctic zone with the party sent 
out by Morison & Brown, of New York, and commanded by Lieutenant 
Schwatka, U. S. A., to prosecute. a renewed search for the records of Sir 
John Franklin's Expedition. Mr. J. Carson Brevoort, of New York, 
Mr. J. J. Copp, Captain Budington, and others had unhesitatingly 
renewed their indorsement of the industry, honesty, and truthfulness 
of this simple-minded Eskimo man, who has received from' the U. S. 
Government much less compensation for noble services than perhaps 
any other one of the " Polaris " Expedition. He has not returned to 
the United States. 

MEMORIALS. 

In the quiet cemetery on the hillside of Groton, may be found a few 
tombstones set up by its citizens in memory of nearly all the Eskimos 
who have visited the United States. One of these stones bears the name 
of him who, going out with Hall, died on board the " George Henry " 
while eagerly inquiring as he again neared his native land, " Do you 
see ice, ice ? " 

> KUD-LA-GO, 

Died July 1, 1860. 

On another tombstone will be read, — 

Ou-SE-GONG- (Jeannie). 
Died July 1st, 1867. Aged 28 years. 

Ou-se-gong was a cousin of Joe, and wife of Kud-lup-pa-mune, known 
by the whalers as " Abbott." 

Captain Budington brought these two Eskimos from Cumberland 
Inlet to New London in 1866 ; on their return with him the next year, 
Jeannie died on the voyage. Two smaller headstones put up for 
Hannah's children have on them the inscriptions : — 



And 



TU-KE-LI-KE-TA. 

Died Feby. 28, 1863. Aged 18 months. 

Sylvia GmisrisrELL Ebiekbing 

(Punna). 

Born at Ig-loo-lik, July, 1866. 

Died March 18, 1875. 

" Of such is the kingdom of heaven." 



344 AJMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

*'She was a survivor of the Polaris Expedition under Commander Cliarles Francis 
Hall, and was jHcked up with nineteen others from an ice-floe, April 30, 1873, after a drift 
on the ice for a period of one hundred and ninety days and a distance of nearly twelve 
hundred miles." 



On a visit to these graves in 1878, when making inquiries of Eskimo 
Joe in regard to some facts for use in the Narrative of " Hall's Second 
Arctic Expedition," he was observed to kneel at Hannah's grave and 
carefully weed out the long grass. Then turning to his visitors he said, 
" Hannah gone I Punna gone ! me go now again to King William Land; 
if have to fight, me no care." 

Over the grave of the faithful Hannah, the interpreter of each Ex- 
pedition, and the friend who wept at Hall's burial, has recently been 
placed an elegant granite headstone with the monogram J. & H. and 
an inscription, designed for her by Mr. J. J. Copp and other true 
friends. 



346 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

adding: "As, in following this route, the 'Pandora' would pass King 
William Land, it was proposed, if successful in reaching that locality, 
in the summer season, when the snow was ofP the land, to make a 
search for further records and for the journals of the ships ' Erebus ' 
and ' Terror.' " Captain Young, however, found himself beset by an 
impenetrable pack at the Roquette Islands in Franklin Channel, one 
hundred and forty miles from Point Victory, — a disappointment which 
was more severely felt because, the day before, his ship had run south- 
ward through Peel's Straits with a clear sea, with no sign of ice, and 
with every prospect of reaching King William Land, and accomplishing 
the northwest passage. 

Three years later, the search for the records was renewed by Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka, U. S. A. For the recovery of these long-desired 
treasures, nothing was accomplished, simply because nothing was pos- 
sible ; but the journey has added facts of value to the domain of 
Geography, and its records exhibit an experience of remarkable energy, 
perseverance, and fortitude, entitling it to a worthy place in the story 
of American Exploration. The sledging has no parallel in Arctic 
history. 

The immediate occasion of the Expedition was the renewal of the 
old story brought back from the Neit-chi-lli Eskimos by two American 
whaling-masters. Captains Potter and Barry, that books and papers 
were to be found in a cairn in King William Land. The first of these 
stories seems to have been related by Captain Potter in 1872; he had 
been frozen up twenty-four months in Repulse Bay and thence brought 
to New York, spoons, forks and knives engraved with the crests and ini- 
tials of Franklin, Crozier, and Fitz James ; reporting that the Neit-chi-llis 
had spoken of papers and books laid away in a cairn by the last white man 
who had visited their country. This report, again renewed in 1877, on 
the return of Captain Barry, one of Potter's former companions, opened 
up the presumption that the books might be the ships' logs and notes of 
scientific observations. For their recovery the British Government for 
many years had held open a large reward, and although this had now 
lapsed, Messrs. Morrison and Brown, owners of Barry's vessel, the 
" Eothen," were officially informed that if the proposed search were 



schwatka's instructions. 347 

successful, liberal compensation \voul:l be made. Lieutenant Fred- 
erick Scliwatka, of the 3cl U. S. Cavalry, of Polish descent but American 
birth, had previously become eager to organize a search party and 
find the cairn and buried papers ; on conference with the shipping 
merchants named, his offer to organize an expedition was accepted and 
the ship fitted out by private subscriptions. The enterprise was en- 
couraged by Judge Daly, Preside'nt of the Geographical So'ciety of 
New York, who endorsed the Lieutenant's application to General Sher- 
man for leave of absence from regular army duty. 

June 19, 1878, Schwatka sailed from New York accompanied by Mr. 
William H. Gilder as second in command ; Henry Klutschak, who had 
passed through some Arctic experiences ; Melms, an old whaleman; 
and Joe Ebierbing, who had returned from his last Polar Expedition, 
under Captain Young of the " Pandora." The " Eothen," commanded 
by Captain T. F. Barry, was a stout vessel of one hundred and two 
tons ; her crew numbered twenty-three men. For encounters with the 
ice, her hull had been overlaid to the chain plates with oak planking 
one and a half inches thick, and her stem, covered Avith oak ^wo feet 
thick ; the iron plating on it, three fourths of an inch. Li addition to 
a fair outfit, including arms and ammunition, boxes were shipped in the 
hopeful idea of the records, and tobacco stored in abundance for the 
use of such Eskimos as might have stories to tell or assistance to offer. 
Horseradish was taken as an anti-scorbutic. 

Within the instruct] ons"^urnished to the Lieutenant, he was advised, 
that, if he should be so fortunate as to find the records, remains, or relics, 
their contents should be kept secret ; and if he should find the remains 
of Sir John Franklin or any of his 'party he would properly take care 
of them, and bring them to the United States. Should the expedition 
prove a failure in its chief object, he was to make it a geographical 
success, as he would be compelled to travel over a great deal of 
unexplored country, and would make daily observations and be able 
to discover and mark errors on the existing charts. This Schwatka 
effected. 

The first iceberg was seen July 11. On the 19th in lat. 59° 54' N., 
long. 60° 45 W. before midnight nearl}^ seventy at different hours were 



348 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

in sight ; one, says Captain Gilmer, appearing like a huge circus-tent 
with an adjoining side-show booth, while near by, another was a most 
perfect representation of a cottage by the sea, with gables towards the 
observer and chimneys rising at proper intervals along the roof ; one 
other seemed a perfect counterpart of Newstead Abbey: the ivy seemed 
creeping over its sides, so deceptive were the shadows that fell on it 
from pinnacles and horizontal projections innumerable." 

August 7, 1878, the ship reached Whale Point at the entrance of 
Rowe's Welcome, an arm of Hudson's Bay, and was soon visited by a 
large number of the natives, among whom were Ar-mou (the wolf), 
I-ke-mer (fire), and Ar-mou's brother, Too-goo-lan (Pa-pa-tewa), com- 
panions of Captain Hall on his Second Expedition. All the people 
seemed friendly, and on consultation over the charts, it was decided to 
go on to the mainland near Depot Island, and spend the winter. The 
journey westward would be begun in the early part of the spring. 

But with deep regret it was at once learned that one of the two 
Neit-chi-Uis of whom Barry had spoken as • talking while looking at the 
ship's log, of " the big white man who many years ago had kept the 
same kind of book, and hid it in a cairn," had died, and nobody knew 
what had become of the other man. Schwatka, nothing daunted, 
pitched his tent on shore, lat. 63° 51' N., long. 90° 26' 15" W., and 
determined, in place of returning to New York, as he would have been 
justified in doing, to make during the following summer a final and 
conclusive search. The Arctic winter up to April 1st was therefore 
spent in the igloos. It inured the party to the climate, and occasional 
sledge journeys, and taught them how to clothe themselves and otherwise 
provide against the cold. During the winter, further news of the relics 
was by no means more encouraging than that already received. From 
Nu-tar-ge-ark a man of about forty or fifty years of age, it was learned 
that his father many years before had taken out from a cairn on King 
William Land, a tin box containing paper with writing on it (the same 
account of the box and paper with that given by Captain Hall in 1866), 
the additional statement being at that time made to him, that the paper 
had been "thrown away as of no use to Innuits." The native, how- 
ever, spoke further to Gilder of a cairn within which the Innuits 



THE whalers' reports. 349 

believed something lay still buried beneath a very heavy stone which 
had been undisturbed. A spoon brought from King William Land by 
Nu-tar-ge-ark had been given to Captain Potter. 

Mr. Gilder's first errand then was to find the captain, and in this he 
succeeded on a visit to Marble Island in January, 1879, when Potter, 
then second in command of the whaler " Abbie Bradford," unhappily 
exploded the story which had been the chief means of bringing' Lieuten- 
ant Schwatka from the States. This he felt constrained to do by show- 
ing that the assertion made by Captain Barry that he had understood 
Innuits talking to each other about " the big man who rzc.rij years be- 
fore had been seen with a big book like the ship's log" was supremely 
ridiculous ; for probably no white man in the Arctic could have under- 
stood the conversational language of those natives, so different from the 
" pigeon English " they use in communicating with the whalers. In 
this crucible of fact, says Mr. Gilder, the famous spoon* melted. So 
far as Captain Barry and his clews were concerned '' we had come on a 
fool's errand." 

The final search, however, was not to be abandoned, and this decis- 
ion was afterward fully justified by the labors of the Expedition and its 
results. The commander knew what was before him, and with whom 
he had to deal, and would not return empty-handed. To verify the 
statements made by Nu-tar-ge-ark and other natives — nearly the same 
with those made to Captain Hall in 1869 — (see Chap. VII. p. 266), 
"that very many skeletons still lay on the ground in King William 
Land, invisible in winter by being covered with snow," — as well as 
to determine finally in regard to the Records, a journey would now be 
undertaken to the distant regions. For this, the first thing necessary 
Avas to get full dog-teams, for which Gilder set out on a visit to the 
Kinnepatoos, seventy miles west and north from Marble Island. He 
was the first white man to visit them, the first ever seen by a number 
of them ; but all were friendly, even at his first entry to their igloos. 

* The famous spoon brought by Captain Barry to New York had been sent by the 
writer for Morrison & Brown of New York, from the Naval Observatory through the State 
Department to Miss Sophia Cracroft, London,* niece of Sir John FrankUn. The cut on 
the next page is a fac-simile. It was unquestionably one of Franklin's, and acknowledged 
as such in England. 



850 



ajvikbicaj^ explorations in the ice zones. 



Remaining with them a week, he witnessed the performance of the 
Key-low-tik, which has been described in Hall's narrative, and says that 
he frequently "grew weary and slept through it," but that it would 
cause a sensation in New York. 

On his return from the village, after securing a few dogs. Gilder dis- 
covered two lakes, which he named respectively Brevoort and Duryea, 





FEANKLIN'S SPOON 




Fac-simile of a spoon brought from Repulse Bay to Morrison & Brown of New York, and sent by 
U. S. Naval Observatory to Miss Cracroft, niece of Sir John Franklin. Mending done by the Eskimos. 

and reconnoitred the southeast shore of Depot Island, the mouth of 
Chesterfield Bay and its Islands, and Marble Island ; he also discovered 
a river which he named the Connery, and which by its course appeared 
to indicate the proper route to King William Land. 

Within the same period. Lieutenant Schwatka made a preliminary 
sledge journey to the North, discovered a river which he named Loril- 
lard, and a chain of hills which he named the Hazard Range ; to 
their summit he gave the name Wheeler. By astronomical observa- 
tions and surveys, he determined that the west coast of Hudson's Bay 
in that section had been laid down on the charts about 2° too far to 
the West. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERIES. 351 

April 1, 1879, he began his sledge journey of eleven months cover- 
ing a distance of three thousand two hundred and fifty miles, accom- 
panied by thirteen Innuit men, women, and children. Their sleds, drawn 
by forty-two dogs, bore weights of about five thousand pounds — loads 
which would be each day lessened by the rationing of the walrus-meat 
to men and dogs. It was scarcely more than a month's supply, but the 
party were reasonably expecting to get their subsistence from' the game 
which they would continually find to increase in number with the open- 
ing season. Their general course was north-northwest ; it was the most 
direct route, but led them across land up to that date unvisited by a 
white man, and unknown to the Innuits. 

For the first few days the journey was one of exceeding fatigue, the 
men having more than once to put on their rue-raddies (harness) in 
order to help the dogs over some ridge or through a snow-drift. They 
crossed the Connery and the Lorillard rivers, and on April 27, by thft 
Chart, they should have been on the Wager River, but saw nothing of 
it ; a fact which may explain Hall's being landed at the mistaken point, 
as named in this volume (Chap. VII., page 210). The charts of Hud- 
son Bay have misled the whalers. By the 21st they were in lat. 65'' 
45' across the Wager River ; and by May 9th were following a branch 
of Back's or Fish River, which they named after President Hayes. On 
this river, May 15th, they fell in with a party of Ook-joo-liks whose 
chief gave them their first direct news of the missing navigators. 
Their coming near to this party was first made know^n by the excite- 
ment among ^lie dogs which started off on a brisk run with loud bark- 
ing ; the Innuits at once said that this showed that people were not 
far off. 

Schwatka's Innuits, including Joe, were much frightened, but were 
reassured by his calling their attention to the difference between breecl> 
loaders and Innuit bows and knives. In fact, on coming nearer^ to the 
nine men, it was found that they had been even afraid to come out of 
their igloos until they heard the name of one of the Injiuits, and 
although they, all carried knives, these were but bits of hoop-iron or 
copper. They were also miserably poor and without food. Supplied 
by Schwatka with reindeer-meat, of which he had already found abun- 



352 AJNIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

dance, they became very friendly, assisted in building igloos, and gave 
further valued information of Franklin's party. This was in part sub- 
stantially the same with that learned by Hall, viz. : that a ship had been 
found in the ice off the west coast of Adelaide Peninsula, and that 
knives, spoons, and utensils had been taken out by cutting a hole into 
the ship on a level with the ice, as they did not know how to get inside 
by the doors ; they saw no bread ; they saw books on board and left 
them there ; and when the ice broke up in the following summer, the 
ship filled through the hole they had cut, and sank. 

Taking some of these men into his company, in four more marches. 
Schwatka reached Back's River, and thence searched in vain on Mon- 
treal Island for the reported cairn. He then again took the mainland,, 
and after crossing Richardson Point, for the first time, fell in with 
the Neit-chi-lis proper. The indications from these people not appear- 
ing those of sincere friendship, and their custom being known of killing 
the first stranger that comes after a death among them, an impression 
was made upon them by firing a gun in the air, after which, in their 
turn, they became friendly, and gave much further news. One of the 
old natives had seen books and papers scattered around the rocks, with 
knives, forks, and watches ; another as late as the previous summer had 
picked up relics on the west coast of Adelaide peninsula, and pointed 
out the place where the ship had been sunk ; others had seen the white 
men putting up a tent, some of their number being in a boat ; some of 
the white men were very thin, their mouths dry, hard, and black ; they 
had no fur clothing on ; in the following spring a tent had been seen 
standing on the shore with a great many dead bodies inside and out- 
side ; no flesh on them. There were knives, forks, spoons, watches, 
many books; but the books were not taken any notice of: a renewed 
statement which alone exists as the key to the utter inability on the 
part of all explorers to find the Records. They were doubtless de- 
stroyed by the natives ; perhaps those at Beechey Island also. 

June 4, Schwatka and Gilder visited a new cairn reported to have 
been erected by white men near Pfeffer River. It was found to be the 
one erected by Captain Hall, May 1^, 1869, over the bones of two of 
Franklin's men which he had there discovered (see Chap. VII. p. 263), 



EELICS SEEN BY NATIVES. 



353 



and it confirmed an impression on Schwatka's party that the white men 
spoken of in the tent were all officers, and that the books reported to 
have been found in a tin case were the more important Records of the 
Expedition in their charge. At the site of a camp — probably that of 
Crozier — after abandoning his ship off Cape Jane Franklin, were found 
cooking-stoves, with their kettles, besides clothing, blankets, canvas, 
etc., and an open grave in which was a quantity of blue cl'oth, some 
canvas, gilt buttons, and the object-glass of a telescope. On one of 
the stones at the foot of the grave was a solid silver medal two and a 
Jaalf inches in diameter with a bas-relief portrait of George IV. on 
the obverse, and on the reverse a laurel wreath surrounded by the 
words, — 



^ — 


^ 




GEORGIUS IV., D.G. BRITANNIARUM EEX, 




1820. 


^ 


. ^ 



and on the left a laurel wreath surrounded by. 



*i<- 



-^ 



SECOND MATHEMATICAL PRIZE, ROYAL 
NAVAL COLLEGE. 



-^ 



and inclosing, 



-^ 



AWARDED TO JOHN IRVING, MID- 
SUMMER, 1881. 



^- 



-^ 



This at once identified the grave as that of Lieutenant John Irving, third 
officer of the " Terror ; " under the head was a figured-silk pocket hand- 
kerchief remarkably preserved. The skull and a few other bones found 
were carefully gathered, and on the return of the Expedition seut to 
the grateful relations of Lieutenant Irving in Scotland, where they 
were buried with due honor in his native town. These were the only 
remains which could be sufficiently identified to warrant their removal. 
But by this kindly Christian act. Lieutenant Schwatka added another 



354 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

national testimony as well as one of humane feeling towards the 
lamented navigators ; Captain Hall having performed a like duty in 
1869, by sending, through Mr. Brevoort, of Brooklyn, and Admiral 
Ingiefield, E.N., remains, afterwards by a plug in a tooth identified in 
England as those of Lieutenant Yescomte of the " Erebus." 

July 3, Schwatka's party was at Cape Felix, the most northern point 
of King William Land. To reach this point they had cached all their 
heavy stuff in order to lighten the sled as much as possible, but had 
found their journey to be one of exceeding fatigue, the walking bring- 
ing to them new tortures daily. They were either wading through 
treacherous frozen torrents or lakes, or painfully plodding in soft seal- 
skin boots over sharp clay stones, some of which slipped, sliding their 
unwary feet into crevices that would seemingly wrench them from the 
body. Yet they moved about ten miles a day, and made as thorough a 
search as was possible. Their meat diet, most of it eaten as soon as 
killed, brought on frequent diarrhoea, their food being ducks, geese, and 
an occasional reindeer. Three miles south of the cape was found a torn- 
down cairn containing among other things, pieces of an ornamented 
china teacup, and cans of preserved potatoes ; indications that the spot 
had been a permanent camping-place from the ships, and in charge of 
an officer. Two miles back from the coast was another well-built cairn 
or pillar, seven feet high, Avhich had been built on a prominent hill over- 
looking both coasts. This Lieutenant Schwatka took carefully down 
without meeting with any record or mark whatever. Eegretting that 
the only one left standing on King William Land, built by the hands 
of white men, should thus be found, he rebuilt it, depositing in it a 
record of the work done by his party to date. After a thorough exam- 
ination of the locality, it was plain that Sir John Franklin had not been 
buried in that vicinity. 

July 7, the southward march was taken up from Cape Felix, and a 
cairn very like the last was met with, in the first course of stones of 
which was a piece of paper with a carefully drawn hand on it, the index 
finger pointing in a southerly direction ; any writing upon it, if ever 
made, had disappeared, nor could any other relics be found. It was 
judged that these last two cairns had been built by the Franklin 



JOUENEY TO CAPE FELIX. 



355 



Expedition for some scientific purpose only. Its scientific records, so 
long desired, especially those doubtless made here, near the Magnetic 
Pole, were not to be seen. 

After erecting a monument, July 13, over the grave of Lieutenant 
Irving, and burying a copy of the Record left here by McClintock, 
Schwatka's party continued their coast journey, finding at different 




THE :VL.1RCH SOUTHWAKD. 

points, tenting-places both of white men and natives, and another cairn 
which had been torn down, but nothing left within. At some distance 
from an empty grave was a skull which had evidently been dragged 
there by wild beasts. Near by were traces of native tenting-places ; 
and here Gilder in his narrative remarks that, " wherever they found 
graves they always found evidences that the natives had encamped in 
the neighborhood like vultures." This, with many other like state- 
ments, was confirmatory of the records made by Captain Hall in 1869. 

From this point the party went on to Erebus Bay, on the south side 
of which was found the wreck of a ship's boat, pieces of cloth, canvas, 



356 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

iron, and human bones. The prow and stern post of the boat were in 
good condition, and its clinkered boards measuring twenty-eight feet 
six inches to where they were broken off, showed it to have been a very 
large boat. Portions of four skeletons were found and buried. 

Here, by the breaking up of the ice and the melting of the snow, it 
became evident that sledging was over for the season ; it would now be 
necessary to carry everything on the back, or upon the dogs. After a 
very tedious journey. Terror Bay was reached August 3, and Schwatka 
and Gilder were there left alone until September 1, their natives having 
returned to the coast to bring up some supplies with the empty sled. 
The two left in camp obtained a plentiful supply of reindeer. They 
searched the coast as far west as Cape Crozier, but the tent-place 
spoken of by the natives could not be found, though its site was 
reached ; it was afterward learned th^^t it was so close to the water that 
now all traces of it had disappeared. 

September 19, a permanent camp was by necessity formed for early 
wintering, and was made near Gladman Point on a narrow point of 
Simpson's Strait. Reindeer were seen in immense herds. Too-loo-aK 
in one day killed seven in ten minutes, kissing his rifle for its dutiful 
obedience. On the 30th, twenty-six were killed. But by October 
14, no more were seen. 

The worst march of the whole journey began December 10 ; it 
became a continued struggle for life. The provision of fish which the 
party took from Back River, salmon, and a species of herring, soon ran 
out, and reindeer were so scarce that hunters were often absent several 
days before getting a shot at one. Farther south Avhere they were more 
plentiful, but the travellers had to defend themselves from the wolves, 
and several times the hunters barely escaped being devoured. The 
reindeer flesh was now too lean to afford good nourishment, and had to 
be eaten, moreover, not only raw, but when frozen so stiff that it had to 
be sawed into small bits and thawed in the mouth ; and of lard and 
tallow they had only enough to light their igloos. .More than half the 
dogs died on the route. 

Snow-storms often kept the party in camp several days ; one of them 
lasting thirteen. The average temperature of the month of December 




COLD WEATHER. 



358 AINIERICAN EXPLOEATIONS LN" THE ICE ZOKES. 

was — 50° F., and the minimum reading — 69°. The mean for January 
was — 53° ; the minimum observed January 3, — 71°. The mean tem- 
perature in February was — 45° ; the lowest — 69°. The thermometer 
stood 60° under the zero point for twenty-seven several days, and for 
sixteen days it was below — 68°. The natives said that the winter 
was an unusually severe one. The thermometer had registered on the 
10th, — 62°; on the 28th, in the morning, it read, — 69°; at noon, 
— 64° ; and at 5 p. M., — 68° ; the lowest, 101° below the freezing point. 
It has been determined to abandon the river and strike directly for 
Depot Island. 

But for the excellent character of the American fire-arms used, it 
seems impossible that this return journey could have been made. Every- 
thing, even the iron and wood, was seriously affected by such extreme 
cold, and when the guns were brought into the warmer temperature of 
the igloo only for cleaning, every particle of the gathered moisture must 
be removed before they again met the cold. It was also a very diffi- 
cult thing to get near enough to such wary game as the reindeer, for 
the sound of the hunter's footsteps, though his shoe-soles were covered 
with fur, was carried by the wind to be heard more than a mile off. 
Yet, by the sui^eriority of the guns, whenever the party came upon the 
reindeer, especially when travelling against a head-wind, preventing 
the approach of the hunter from being heard by the deer, the breech- 
loaders and magazine guns did their work so effectively that they could 
lay in a stock of meat a day or two ahead for the igloos. 

The country began to swarm with wolves daity met with; they 
killed some of the dogs and attacked the natives. February 23, twenty 
attacked Too-loo-ah, who beat them off with the butt of his gun until 
he had killed one and made his escape, while the others were fighting 
over and devouring the carcass. 

March 4, with light sleds and by forced marches Schwatka had got 
back to Depot Island, but to his amazement he here learned from 
Ar-mou that Captain Barry had not left with him the provisions be- 
longing to the party, and which he had promised to leave with that 
faithful native ; nor was there more than one ship in the bay and that 
was at Marble Island. A further journey was therefore necessary, 



RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 359 

which was ended on the 21st, only when the whaler "George Mary" was 
boarded at midnight, Captain Gilder being the first to reach the ship. 

Thus was a continuous journey safely accomplished through Arctic 
snows, gales, and darkness during winter months, a journey unequalled 
in all Arctic history. Gilder, who was ever with Schwatka at the 
front, though in his recital of the march through modesty he exclu- 
sively accredits others, sums up the record in terms which are worth a 
close citation: — 

" During the year that we were absent from the verge of civilization, 
as the winter harbor of the whalers may be considered, we had travelled 
two thousand eight hundred and nineteen geographical, or three thou- 
sand two hundred and fifty-one statute miles, most of which was over 
unexplored territory, constituting the longest sledge journey ever made, 
both as to time and distance, and the only extended sledge journey 
ever accomplished in the Arctic, except such as have been made 
through countries well known and over routes almost as thoroughly 
established as post-roads. Our sledge journey stands conspicuous as 
the only one ever made through the entire course of an Arctic winter, 
and one regarded by the natives as exceptionally cold, as the amount 
of suffering encountered by those remaining at Depot Island attested, 
and further confirmed, as we afterward learned, by the experience of 
those who wintered at Wager River, where many deaths occurred, 
attributable to the unusual severity of the season. The party success- 
fully withstood the lowest temperature ever experienced by white men 
in the field, recording one observation of — 71 degrees Fahrenheit, 
sixteen days whose average was one hundred degrees below the freez- 
ing point, and twenty-seven which registered below — 60 degrees, dur- 
ing most of which the party travelled. In fact, the expedition never 
took cold into consideration, or halted a single day on that account. 

" During the entire journey, its reliance for food both for mail and 
beast may be said to have been solely upon the resources of the 
country, as the expedition started with less than one month's rations, 
and it is the first in which the white men of an expedition voluntarily 
lived exclusively upon the same fare as its Eskimo assistants, thus 
showing that white men can safely adapt themselves to the climate and 



360 A^NIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

life of tlie Eskimos, and prosecute their journeys in any season or, 
under such circumstances as would the natives of the country them- 
selves." [The Second Expedition of Captain Hall accorded with this 
last-named fact, except in the matter of his partial dependence on the 
whalers. — J. E. N.] 

" The Expedition was the first to make a summer search over the 
route of the lost crews of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' and while so 
doing buried the remains of every member of that fated party above 
ground, so that no longer the bleached bones of those unfortunate 
explorers whiten the coasts of King William Land and Adelaide Pen- 
insula as an eternal rebuke to civilization, but all have, for the time 
being at least, received decent and respectful interment." 

" The most important direct result of the labors of the Expedition 
will undoubtedly be considered the establishing the loss of the Franklin 
records at the boat place in Starvation Cove ; and as ever since Dr. 
Rae's expedition of 1854, which ascertained the fate of the party, the 
recovery of the Records has been the main object of subsequent ex- 
ploring in this direction, the history of the Franklin Expedition may 
now be considered as closed. As ascertaining the fate of the party 
was not so gratifying as would have been their rescue or the relief of 
any number thereof, so is it in establishing the fate of the record of 
their labors. Next in importance to their recovery must be considered 
the knowledge of their irrecoverable loss. . . . The excellent manage- 
ment of the Commander, Lieutenant Schwatka, secured his party from 
many of the usual misfortunes of those in the field and deprived the 
Expedition of the sensational character it might have assumed in other 
hands. Every contingency was calculated upon and provided for before- 
hand." — "Schwatka's Search, Sledging in the Arctic in quest of Frank- 
lin Records." Charles Scribner's Sons, 1881. 



THE RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 

It was gratifying to all the friends of the daring explorers, to greet 
them safe, and in fair health on their return to the comforts of home, 
September 22, 1880. It is still more pleasing to find on the records of 



AWARD OF IVIEDAL TO LIEUTENANT SCHWATKA. 361 

American Arctic Explorations, the history of such an Expedition, an 
addition to the labors of previous explorers all the more valuable as 
demonstrating what can be effected even amidst the tempests of the 
heavens and the ice-covered and desolate lands under foot, by fore- 
sight, executive ability, and undaunted iron will. The journey of 
Lieutenant Schwatka and his companions stands the counterpart on 
land with the drift of the ice-floe party conducted hy Tyson' from the 
"Polaris," unexampled in history. The Societe de G-eographie of 
Paris awarded to Lieutenant Schwatka one of their gold medals given 
to explorers. The Comptes Rendus of the Society for the first general 
session, April 20, 1883, furnish the opening address of M. de Lesseps, 
who referred to the fact that it was the fifty-fourth year in which the 
Society had awarded its highest honors, more than half of which had 
been decreed to Frenchmen, among whom he was proud of having place. 
On the presentation of the Report from the Prize Commission on 
the journey of Lieutenant Schwatka to King William Land, the Com- 
mission expressed their regret through Count Louis de Turenne, that 
Mr. Morton, U. S. Minister, had been prevented from being present to 
receive this Medal, but were pleased that one of the Legation repre- 
sented him. M. de Turenne further said : " Our Commission, has 
thoroughly examined the merits and the geographical relations of Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka's journey, and you will permit me to draw from it 
its moral bearing. England and the United States, as every one knows, 
have had some earnest disputes, but immediately on the appearance of 
the probable disaster of the 'Erebus' and the 'Terror,' the United 
States exhibited the noblest activity, and made the grandest sacrifice 
of men and money to succor the Expedition, whose chief had once 
fought against them. The journey of Mr. Schwatka has been the 
epilogue of the series of general croisades made by the United States to 
recover the remains of the great Franklin. The Geographical 'Society 
is happy to have it in its power to crown the scientific results of an 
enterprise inspired by such noble sentiments." 

Addressing the representative of the U. S. Legation, M. de Lesseps 
said : " Be pleased to forward this medal to your courageous countryman, 
with the expression of our esteem for him and his companions. We 



362 



AIMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



hope also that the Gordon Bennetts, the Lorillards, and the other 
Mecsenases of science in the United States will accept the acknowledg- 
ments addressed to them by our prize commission, and cordially con- 
curred in by all their associates." The beautiful gold medal, which is 
the counterpart of the Roquette Medal awarded to Captain Hall, has 
been received by the State Department at Washington, and forwarded 
by the' War Department to Lieutenant Schwatka. It may be noted in 
this connection that the Societe de Greographie^ the oldest of geographi- 
cal societies, has thus shown its appreciation of each American Arctic 
discoverer, — Kane, Hayes, Hall, and Schwatka. 

By an Act of Congress approved August 7, 1882, Lieutenant 
Schwatka's leave-of-absence pay was raised to that of full pay during 
the period of his expedition, March 5, 1878, to October 1, 1880, and 
mileage was allowed him from his post in Dakota Territory to New York, 
where he took command of the Expedition, and for his return at its close 
from New York City to Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory. 
This action of the Congress of the United States was a recognition of his 
meritorious conduct of the exploration. As it was a private enterprise, 
no official report was required, or has been made to the War Depart- 
ment. Lieutenant Schwatka is, at the date of this writing, reporting 
to the Government further explorations recently made by him on the 
Yukon River, Alaska. 




NATR^E NEEBLE-CASE. 
Presented to C. F. Hall when on King William Land, 1869. 




LIEUTENANT G. W. DeLONG. U.S.N. 



Entered the Naval Academy as midsliipman, Oct. 1, 1861; graduated, Sept. 24, 1865; pro- 
moted to be Ensign, Dec. 1, 1866 ; to be Master, May 12. 1868 ; to be Lieutenant, May 26, 1869 : to 
be Lieutenant-Commander, Nov. 1, 1867; commanded the steam-launch "Juniata" in search 
of Captain Hall, 1873 ; commanded the " Jeannette," 1879-1881. 



CHAPTER X. 

LIEUTENANT Dp:LOXG'S EXPEDITION TOWARD THE POLE, 1879-188L 

THE EXPEDITION DeLONG's OWN PROMPTING. — MR. BENNETT UNDER- 
TAKES IT. — SELECTION OF THE ROUTE. — THEORIES. — DeLONG'S 
PLAN. — THE " JEANNETTE " COMMISSIONED. — REPORT OF THE 
BOARD OF INSPECTION AT MARE ISLAND. — OFFICERS AND CREW. — 
SAILING FROM SAN FRANCISCO. — ARRIVAL AT ST. MICHAEL'S. — 
REPORTS OF NORDENSKIOLD. — PASSING THE STRAITS. — ATTEMPTS 
TO REACH WRANGELL AND HERALD ISLANDS. — FROZEN IN THE PACK 
SEPTEMBER 6. — CHIPP ATTEMPTS THE CROSSING TO HERALD ISLAND. 

— THE "JEANNETTE" DRIFTS NORTHWEST PAST WRANGELL LAND. 

— PUMPING BEGUN. — LIEUTENANT DANENHOWER DISABLED. — THE 
RETURN OF THE SUN. — EXPERIMENT OF THE WINDMILL PUMP. — 
DeLONG abandons the theory of the currents. — SCIENTIFIC 
OBSERVATIONS KEPT UP. — THE FROZEN SUMMER. — AURORAL PHE- 
NOMENA. — CONTINUED DRIFT NORTHWEST. — DISCOVERY OF JEAN- 
NETTE AND HENRIETTA ISLANDS. — THE " JEANNETTE " CRUSHED. 

— LANDING ON THE FLOE. — DISCOVERY OF BENNETT ISLAND ; 
DESCRIPTION OF IT BY DR. AMBLER. — THE THREE BOATS. — THEIR 
SEPARATION. — THE WHALEBOAT PARTY LAND ON THE LENA DELTA. 

— THE FIRST CUTTER UNDER DeLONG. — SUFFERINGS. — DeLONG'S 
LAST ENTRIES. — DANENHOWER'S SEARCH. — MELVILLE'S SEARCH. — 
THE DEAD TEN FOUND. — THEIR BURIAL. — RETURN OF LIEUTEN- 
ANT DANENHOWER. — SEARCH BEGUN BY LIEUTENANT HARBER. 

— ENGINEER MELVILLE's RETURN. — APPROPRIATION TO BRING THE 
BODIES HOME. — THEIR EXPECTED ARRIVAL. 

EXPEDITION TO THE POLE BY THE WAY OF BERING STRAIT BY 
LIEUTENANT G. W. DeLONG, U. S. N., 1879-8L j 

THE chief avowed object of this Expedition was to reach the Pole. 
It was the first organized attempt to solve the problem by this 
route, the design of M. Lambert to fit out an Expedition through 
the Strait having been defeated by his premature fall in the Franco- 
German war. 

363 



364 AINIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

From the authentic data furnished in the " Voyage of the ' Jean- 
ne tte,' " * recently issued under the editorship of Mrs. DeLong, it 
appears that this Expedition was of Lieutenant DeLong's own prompt- 
ing. Shortly after his return from the " Juniata's " cruise on the 
Greenland coast in search of Captain Hall's party of 1873, he had 
solicited Mr. Henry Grinnell, of New York, to fit out another Arctic 
Expedition, but was referred by him to Mr. J. G. Bennett as the man 
to undertake it ; Mr. Grinnell pleading his age and his having done his 
full share in Arctic Exploration. Mr. Bennett favorably entertained 
the idea on its first presentation, but the matter rested until November, 
1876, when the determination was formed to secure a suitable vessel 
and start for the North Pole the following summer. 

No proper American ship being found, DeLong went to England on 
a two months' leave of absence from the Navy Department, and, after 
a vigilant but unsuccessful search in the northern ports from which 
whaling vessels were sent out, decided that the " Pandora," which, as. 
has been already stated in this volume, had made two Arctic voyages. 
under Captain Allen Young, R. N., was the most available ship.* After 
receiving information of Mr. Bennett's purchase of this vessel, DeLong 
again went to England on a second leave of absence from naval duty in 
the United States. He superintended the fitting out of the "Pandora" 
in the ship-yard at Deptford, and when she was finally ready for sea, 
sliipped her crew at Cowes. After crossing to Havre, where he com- 
pleted his equipment of charts, books, and instruments, he sailed for 
San Francisco by way of the Horn, July 15, 1878. Lieutenant J. W. 
Danenhower, who had been on duty in the Mediterranean on the 

* '* The voyage of the ' Jeannette ' ; the ship and ice journals of G. W. DeLong, Lieu- 
tenant Commander U. S. i>r. , and Commander of the Polar Expedition, 1879-81; edited 
by his wife, Emma DeLong, 2 vols., 8vo. : Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Kiverside Press, 
Boston." 

In preparing the following Narrative the chief reliance has been upon the volumes 
just named, the proof-sheets being courteously loaned in advance; the reports of the 
Honorable Secretaries of the Navy, Thompson and Chandler, including those of Engineer 
Melville and Lieutenant Danenhower, the Eeport of the Naval Court of Inquiry for 
March 2, 1883, including the testimony of Seamen Noros, Nindemann, and Bartlett, and 
the Narrative of the Expedition by K. L. Newcomb, its naturalist, have also been con- 
salted. 



FALSE THEORIES. 365 

U. S. S. " Vandalia," had joined him as Executive Officer for the cruise. 
The voyage to San Francisco was one of one hundred and sixty-five 
•days, during whicli the ship anchored three times within the Straits 
of Magellan, but no one set foot on shore until December 27, when 
,she anchored at the Mare Island Navy Yard. 



THE ROUTE. 

In regard to this, DeLong had written to Mr. Bennett, January 25 : 
*' There are three ways for us to send the Expedition; Smith's Sound, 
Eering Strait, and the east coast of Greenland. Of the three, I am in 
favor of Bering Strait, though something can be said in behalf of the 
€ast coast of Greenland. Professor Nordenskiold has received some 
information from our Hydrographic Office in relation to Bering Strait, 
and a copy of this information will be furnished us. We may be able 
to accomplish much by way of Bering Strait by leaving San Francisco 
as late as July 1, but I would like to be ready by June 1 or 10. My 
opinion may be changed by what you have heard from Dr. Petermann, 
but as you have not told me what that was, I cannot say now." What 
Mr. Bennett had heard from Dr. Petermann, as afterwards written to 
DeLong, was in substance this : " The eminent geographer felt certain 
that the North Pole could be reached, but not by Smith's Sound, or 
Baffin's Bay, nor by sledging ; but by a dash which he thought could be 
made in one summer; wintering in the Arctic regions he considered a 
mistake if it could in any way be avoided ; the Pole should be reached 
in three summer months or not at all." 

This theoretical advice was unsound. The Bering Strait route 
seems to have been determined upon chiefly from a reliance on the two 
theories, that the Japan current opened by its warm waters a way 
through the strait toward the Pole, and that Wrangell Land would 
prove to be a vast continental tract. Dr. Petermann had often urged 
the idea that Wrangell Land would be found to stretch itself across the 
Pole, reappearing as Greenland. The " Jeannette " was to follow the 
coast-line of this land, and then make sledge expeditions along the ice 
foot. DeLong hoped to reach it the first season, and spend the wintei 



366 AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

there in exploration, and thence go to the extreme limit of possible 
navigation. " If the current takes me to the west," he wrote before 
starting, " you will hear of me through St. Petersburg ; but if it takes 
me eastward and northward, there is no saying what points I may 
reach ; but I hope to come out through Smith's or Jones' Sound." He 
wrote, "It is our intention to attack the Polar regions by the way of 
Bering Straits, and if our efforts are not crowned with success, we 
shall have made an attempt in a new direction and examined a hitherto 
unknown country." In conversation with Lieutenant Danenhower, he 
said he had also something more definite and tangible in view than 
reaching the North Pole, and that was to explore Wrangell Land and 
the Siberian Ocean; there were rumors and traditions of Wrangell 
Land being inhabited or visited by natives. The prospects for reach- 
ing a high latitude depended on the continuity of the coast-line to the 
northAvard, for having land as a basis of advance was considered one of 
the first principles of Polar explorations. 

July 17, 1879, he wrote : — 

At Sea, lat. 41° 58' N., long. 136° 0' 1". 

" If the season is favorable to an advance northward I shall make 
for Kellett (or Wrangell) Land, and follow along its east coast as far 
as we can go. 

" If everything is all right with Nordenskiold, and I hear of it, there 
will be no necessity for our going to St. Lawrence Bay at all. In this 
case I shall push through Bering Strait at once and make for the east 
side of Kellett Land, following it as far as possible, and getting to as 
high a latitude with the ship as we can before getting into winter 
quarters. If our progress is uninterrupted for some distance, I shall 
content myself with one landing, at first on the southeast point of 
Wrangell or Kellett Land, where we will build a cairn and leave a 
record of our progress to date. If our progress is interrupted, we 
shall no doubt make frequent landings on Kellett Land, and build 
several cairns ; but, generally speaking, I shall endeavor to build 
cairns and leave records every twenty-five nautical miles of our 
track." 



THE JAPAN CURRENT. 367 

From Ounalaska he wrote, " We go to as high a latitude as God will 
let us reach in two years, keeping in reserve the third year to get back ; 
pray for my success, for my heart is set on this thing." 

And, here although seemingly in hasteful anticipation of the history 
which this narrative is to present, the writer finds himself compelled 
to note, that, outside of the reports of some whaling captains and of 
pure theory, there appeared little ground for the belief in the extension 
of ^Wrangell Land beyond the limits assigned on the U. S. Hydro- 
graphical Chart; and that the supposed favorable influence of the 
Japan current on the waters of the Arctic Sea, advocated by Mr. Bent 
and others, was an idea equally delusive with that of an existing con- 
tinental tract toward the Pole. 

Mr. W. H. Dall, Assistant U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, in his 
then unpublished report to the office for the year 1880, had thus summed 
up an investigation of the currents of Bering Sea : — 

" The Kuro Siwo, compared with the Gulf Stream, is cooler, has a 
much smaller volume, and is subject to serious fluctuations which ap- 
pear to be due to the monsoons. 

" The Kuro Siwo sends no recognizable branch northward, between 
the Aleutians and Kamchatka, nor from any other direction in Bering 
Sea. The chief current of that sea is a motion of cold water southivard. 
This has a superficial stratum above it, which has, in summer when not 
interrupted by winds, a northerly motion of translation, but is not 
sufficient, either in mass, motion, or consistency of direction, to be 
entitled to take rank as an ocean current. The surface currents are 
formed by or chiefly dependent on tides, winds, river flows, the 
southerly motion of cold water, the distribution of floating ice, and 
the northerly motion of slightly warmer surface water; which are 
effective in about the order named. 

"No warm current from Bering Sea enters Bering Strait, with 
the exception of water from the neighboring rivers or the adjacent 
sounds. This water owes its heat directly to the local action of the 
sun's rays. The strait is incapable of carrying a current of warm water 
of sufficient magnitude to have any marked effect on the condition of 
the Polar Basin just north of it. / 



868 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

" The currents through the strait are cool and chiefly tidal, but with 
a preponderating tendency northward, as before fully set forth. 

" The currents in the Arctic, north of the straits, are largely depend- 
ent on the tvinds, but have tendencies in certain recognized directions. 
Nothing in our knowledge of them offers any hope of an easier passage 
toward the Pole, or, in general, northward through their agency. Noth- 
ing yet revealed in the investigation of the subject in the least tends to 
support the widely spread but unphilosophical notion, that in any part 
of the Polar Sea, we may look for large areas free from ice." 

In a ver}^ interesting lecture recently delivered before the American 
Geographical Society of New York, Dr. Thomas Antisell, of the U. S. 
Patent Office, Washington, says : — 

"In May and June a broad warm current is found flowing around 
the shores of the Liu-Kiu Islands and the Bonin Islands, which it has 
already reached in April, producing variable winds before the monsoon 
is established in full influence. This current is felt off the shores of 
Japan, and has already received its Japanese title — the Black Sea or 
current (Kuro Siwo) — from the remarkable dark color which its waters 
exhibit when looking over the ship's side, — it is a deep blue-black, and 
it can be thus recognized with ease as soon as it is attempted to be 
crossed. Cradled in the China sea, the offspring of the equatorial 
drift and its warm currents among the Philippine Islands, when it 
passes Formosa in early summer, it is already a powerful current, and 
begins to send off lesser currents while proceeding on its northern 
route. . . . But the waning power of the Kuro Siwo is indicated by the 
temperatures of the months of October, November, and December, in 
which it disappears between lat. 30° and 40°. The whole ocean is 
cooling down, and the influence of the Asiatic shores as refrigerators is 
apparent ; the N. E. monsoon has set in and continues during the first 
three months of the new year to bring down the condition of the sur- 
face of the Pacific to that condition of equilibrium in which no warmth 
is communicated from the air to the ocean. The S. W. monsoon has 
ceased to blow, and the Kuro Siwo as a current disappears, although its 
warming and equalizing diffusion continues in a mild way. . . . The 
North Pacific Ocean has, practically speaking, no northern outlet; 



THE "JEANNETTE" ACCEPTED FROM MR. BENNETT. 369 

Bering Straits is but a cul de sac, and is no real gate of entrance into the 
Arctic Ocean." — Bulletin, American Geographical Society, No. II., 1883. 

The objects before Captain DeLong having been thus stated, and 
the unfortunate expectation of success entertained by him in reliance 
upon the authorities first named, the thread of the narrative is re- 
sumed at San Francisco. The " Jeannette " was yet the private prop- 
erty of Mr. Bennett, but his own judgment fully accorded 'with the 
advice given in the outset by Lieutenant DeLong, that the ship should 
be placed in every respect under Naval Command, and a bill was there- 
fore promptly introduced into Congress that the Government should 
accept the " Jeannette " for the purposes of a voyage of exploration. 
The Act authorizing this provided that Mr. Bennett might use in fitting 
her for her voyage any materials he might have on hand for it; might 
enlist the necessary crew for special service, their pay to be temporarily 
met from the pay of the Navy, and to be paid or refunded by him under 
the future orders of the Secretary of the Navy as he might issue these. 
The ship was to proceed on her voyage under the instructions of the 
Navy Department, and the men were to be subject in all respects to 
the Articles of War and Navy regulations and discipline. This Act, 
approved February 27, 1879, was supplemental to the one approved 
March 18, 1878, which had authorized the Secretary of the Treasury 
" to issue an American Register to the vessel, and the President of the 
United States to detail with'*their own consent commissioned, warrant, 
and petty officers not to exceed ten in number, to act as officers to 
said vessel during her first voyage to the Arctic Seas." 

Under the authority of these Acts, Secretary Thompson on the 18th 
of June, 1879, gave to DeLong his instructions, which, however, left the 
details to the experience, discretion, and judgment of the Commander.. 
They embraced the provision, that, on reaching Bering Strait, he 
should " make diligent inquiry at such points where he deemed i^ likely 
that information could be obtained ' concerning the fate of Professor 
Nordenskiold ; if he had good and sufficient reasons for believing Nor- 
denskiold was safe, he would proceed on his voyage ; if otherwise, he 
would pursue such a course as w^ould be judged necessary for his aid 
and relief." 



370 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Ten days later, the, ship was put in commission, when the silk flag 
was used which had been made by Mrs. DeLong to be unfurled when 
taking possession of any new-found land and when the highest latitude 
was reached. The following account of the vessel which has made an 
historic record of such interest is in place-: "The 'Pandora' was built 
at Devonport, England, and was first commissioned by Commander W. F. 
Ruxton, R. N., who sailed in her for the coast of Africa, on which coast 
she was on duty for the term of four years, — her only commission in 
the British Navy. Captain Sir Allen W. Young, R. N. Reserve, pur- 
chased her from the Admiralty for his first Arctic cruise in 1875, and 
had her rigged at Southampton as a barquentine, and fortified and pre- 
pared with all the modern equipments of an Arctic exploring ship. He 
made his second Arctic voyage in her as far as Peel Straits in 1876, 
returning to Portsmouth, England, in November of that year. Both 
Yoyages were severe tests of the strength of the ship ; on the second in 
lat. 75° 10' N., long. 62° 7' W., he drifted five days helplessly with the 
pack which drove him up into Melville Bay, and from which he escaped 
by the change of the wind breaking up the ice, and b}^ putting on the 
ship his whole steam-power. As described by DeLong in his letter to 
Lieutenant Danenhower, dated London, June 2, 1878, "the 'Pandora' 
was of four hundred and twenty tons (builders' tonnage), one hundred 
and forty-two feet long, twenty-five feet beam ; and drew when loaded 
with her Arctic outfit, about thirteen feet; barque-rigged, rolling topsails 
and trices up her screw ; steams or sails about six knots, and is a neat, 
tid}^ little ship. She had been thoroughly repaired and was put in shape, 
her engine force increased to two hundred horse-power, and she had a 
wide spread of canvass." In reply to inquiries recently made by the^ 
Naval Court of Inquiry, Sir Allen Young (November 22, 1882) deposed 
before W. J. Hoppin, Secretary of the U. S. Legation, London, that he 
had considered the "Pandora" fit for Arctic service, both as regards 
strength and model, basing this opinion on his actual experience in her, 
and on his service in the "Fox." He believed her to be far superior 
to the "Fox." It is known that the ship was parted with by the 
owner most reluctantly. 

At the Navy Yard, Mare Island, California, during the month of 



THE FITTING-OUT AT SAN FKANCISCO. 371 

January, 1879, a Board of Naval Officers examined the " Jeannette," 
and reported in obedience to the orders of the Commandant of the 
Yard, Commodore E. R. Colhoun, what repairs were needed, with an 
estimate of their probable cost. The suggestions of the Board which 
was composed of Chief Engineers M. Fletcher and G. F. Kutz, Com- 
mander L. Kempff, and Naval Constructor George W. Much, were 
made in conference with the Commander, who forwarded a fiill report 
to Mr. Bennett, adding the result of his own careful and minute ex- 
amination. As the final decision of her outfit rested with the Secretary 
of the Navy, Captain DeLong was ordered to Washington, where he 
arrived February 15, and was most cordially received by Secretary 
Thompson, who expressed himself as personally and officially interested 
in this Expedition. March 11, Commodores Easby, English, and Shock, 
Chiefs of the Bureaus of Construction, of Equipment, and of Steam- 
engineeering, forwarded under the sanction of Secretary Thompson 
instructions to the Commandant of the Yard at Mare Island to repair 
and strengthen the " Jeannette," and furnish to her the supplies still 
needed for her Arctic, cruise. The work to be done on the yacht was to 
be in accordance with an enclosed memorandum ; the estimated cost of 
repairs and alterations submitted by the Board which has been named 
exceeded 142,500; the outlay finally rose nearly to $100,000. 

June 26, a second Naval Board composed of Captain P. C. Johnson, 
Commander C. J. McDougal, Naval Constructor G. W. Much, and 
Chief Engineers G. F. Kutz and Edward Farmer, reported to Com- 
modore Colhoun, in reply to his order of the 6th to state whether the 
repairs and alterations recommended by the Board of Survey had been 
made, whether any other work not embraced in it but considered neces- 
sary had been done, and whether, in their opinion, the ship had been so 
far as practicable repaired and placed in condition for service in the 
Arctic Ocean. The Report was an affirmative reply to the points 
named by the Commodore as regards the repairs and necessary altera- 
tions. It embraced, however, the statement that, " while she had been 
repaired and placed in condition for Arctic service, so far as practicable, 
it was not possible in the opinion of the Board to make her particularly 
adapted for an extended Arctic cruise." The order convening the 



372 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Board, the Report said, "did not require any expression of opinion 
further than what was thus expressed in its Report." "As it was 
a private enterprise, and the ship had been purchased and was satis- 
factory to those most interested in the enterprise, it was rather a 
delicate thing to express an unfavorable opinion of it in our official 
capacity." * 

The preparation of the "Jeannette," carried forward during De- 
Long's absence in Washington under the supervision of Lieutenant 
C. W. Chipp and Master Danenhower was completed after the return 
of the Lieutenant by his own immediate care. Writing to Mr. Bennett, 
after leaving San Francisco, he said: "Finally, all work came to an 
end, and the ship was turned over to me. I am perfectly satisfied with 
her. She is everything I want for the expedition, but a little small 
for all I want to carry in her. We must remember, however, we are 
making her do the work of an expedition that has heretofore generally 
required tAVO ships. We have every appliance for all kinds of scientific 
experiments. Our outfit is simply perfect, whether for ice or naviga- 
tion, astronomical work, magnetic work, gravity experiments, or col- 
lections of Natural History. We have a good crew, good food, and a 
good ship ; " and I think we have the right kind of stuff to dare all that 
man can do." f 

* By the Act of Congress, however, and the Secretary's instructions, it would seem 
she was under full Xaval law. 

t Before the court of inquiry convened at the Navy Department, October 5, 1882, the 
deposition of ISTaval Constructor Much, made at San Francisco, showed that in the opinion 
of the Board the model or form of the '' Jeannette" was not adapted for ice navigation, 
Constructor Much agreeing with Lieutenant Danenhower's testimony that in his opinion 
she was seaworthy but not fit for extended exploration, being an old vessel of poor model, 
constructed of materials, of sizes, and a general arrangement, more suitable for a yacht than 
for an ordinary built merchant-vessel of the same displacement. The repairs made in Eng- 
land were for the most part superficial, of poor workmanship and inferior material, so 
much so that it was found necessary to remove and replace with better material. The 
Commandant and all other officers of the yard did all that could be done under the circum- 
stances to render the "Jeannette" efficient for the contemplated expedition, and whatever 
opinions may have existed in reference to her fitness, she proved herself able for over 
twelve months to withstand the heavy floes and crushing ice of the Arctic Ocean, and in 
all probability no vessel, however strongly built, could withstand such a continued strain. 

In this last judgment, the finding of the Naval Court of Inquiry named above accords. 
It recites that " although the weight of the evidence shows that she was not especially adapt- 



OFFICERS AND CREW. 373 



DEPARTURE OF THE " JEANNETTE. 

July 8, 1879, Captain DeLong reported to the Secretary of the Navy 
that the ship being in all respects ready for sea, would sail at 3 p. m. of 
that day, and would proceed with all despatch to the Island of Ouna- 
laska, and thence to St. Paul's and to St. Michael's, Alaska, at which last 
point it was hoped that some tidings would be had of Professor Nor- 
denskiold and his party. Failing in this, St. Lawrence Bay in Siberia 
would be visited in further quest ; should nothing there be learned, 
the course would be through Bering Straits, and thence skirt the coast 
of Siberia as far westward as navigation would permit. 

The complement of officers and crew embraced the following names : 
George W. DeLong, Lieutenant U. S. Navy, commanding ; Charles W. 
Chipp, Lieutenant U. S. Navy, executive officer ; John W. Danenhow^er, 
master, U. S. Navy ; George W. Melville, passed assistant engineer, 
U. S. Navy ; Dr. James M. Ambler, passed assistant surgeon U. S. Navy ; 
William M. Dunbar, ^eaman, for special service as ice pilot ; Jerome J. 
Collins, entered on the books as seaman, but for special service as me- 
teorologist ; Raymond L. Newcomb, also entered on the books as seaman, 
for special service as naturalist and taxidermist ; Walter Lee, machinist ; 
James H. Bartlett, first-class fireman; George W. Boyd, second-class 
fireman ; John Cole, boatswain ; Alfred Sweetman, carpenter ; with 
Seamen W. F. C. Nindemann ; Louis P. Noros ; H. W. Leach ; Henr}^ 
Wilson ; C. A. Gortz ; P. E. Johnson ; Edward Star ; Henry D.Warren ; 
H. H. Kaack; A. G. Kuehne; F. E. Manson; H. H. Ericksen; Adolph 

ed in strength or model for navigation in the Arctic region, the fact that an experienced 
Arctic explorer had voluntarily made two cruises in her to the Arctic Seas sustains the 
judgment and care shown in her selection when last purchased. The condition of the 
' Jeannette ' on her departure from the port of San Francisco was good and satisfactory 
to her officers; and crew, except that she was unavoidably deeply loaded, a defect which 
corrected itself by the consumption of coal, provisions, and stores." It is unhappily well 
known that the provisions were reduced in stock not only by consumption but, as not un- 
usual in like cases, by condemnation of some of them on their first arrival from New York. 
In regard to her fitness for the work before her Lieutenant Danenhower's judgment ex- 
pressed to the Board was decidedly adverse. The preceding statements seem necessary 
for an impartial judgment and for demonstrating in connection with the history which fol- 
lows, that no vessel can be built which can outlive a conflict with the ice of the North 
Polar Sea. 



374 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Dressier ; Charles Tong Sing ; Ah Sing ; Ah Sam ; and coal heavers, 
Walter Sharvell, Nelse Iverson, and John Lauterbach. 

The full list then numbered thirty-two persons. Of the officers, 
Lieutenant Chipp will be remembered as having been DeLong's asso- 
ciate on the cruise for Hall in the little '' Juniata," July, 1873 ; he had 
volunteered in close friendship with DeLong for this Expedition, arriv- 
ing, after his detachment from the " Ashuelot " in China, at San Fran- 




LIEUTENANT CHARLES W. CHIPP, U. S. N. 

Appointed Acting Midshipman, July 23, 1863 ; graduated from the Naval Academy, June 2, 
1868 ; promoted to he Ensign, April 9, 1869 ; Master, July 12, 1870 ; Lieutenant, Dec. 2, 1872. 

Cisco in the spring of 1879. Master Danenhower, as has been said, had 
come round the Horn in this ship ; passed assistant engineer Melville 
had been DeLong's comrade on the U. S. S. " Lancaster " in the South 
Atlantic, and was the engineer of the U. S. S. "Tigress" sent out for 
the relief of Captain Hall ; passed assistant surgeon, J. M. Ambler, of 
Virginia, whose medical record in the service was very high, filled the 
important post of surgeon. The ice-pilot, Dunbar, of New London,, 
Conn., had been master of whale ships in and north of Bering Strait- 
The crew had been selected with great care, partly from the east and 
partly from the Pacific coast. William Nindemann had distinguished 



FAVORABLE REPORT OF THE ICE. 375 

himself on the voyage of the " Polaris " by his faithful execution of the 
volunteered but dangerous duty of planting the ice anchors on Provi- 
dence berg, saving the vessel during the stormy night of November 21, 
1871. Officers and crew were volunteers. 

Steaming out of th^ harbor of San Francisco, the " Jeannette " was 
escorted by the Governor of California, by a number of yachts of the 
San Francisco Yacht Club, and by steam launches loaded down with 
citizens. Every ship which was passed dipped her colors, and opposite 
Fort Point its garrison saluted the " Jeannette " with twenty-one guns. 
At 3.30 of the 9th, Point Kayes light was lost sight of. At eleven it 
was foggy, misty, and rainy, with a choppy sea that broke aboard over 
either rail. The ship was loaded very deep, eleven feet nine inches 
forward. 

August 3 she had reached Ounalaska Island, having groped her way 
into the harbor through thick fogs and terrible tides, running between 
one hundred or more islands, very incorrectly laid down on the charts ; 
some of them not at all. DeLong wrote that getting observations was 
out of the question, for when he could see the sea, he could not see the 
horizon, and that his experience in getting through the passes into 
Bering sea was far beyond all previous crooked navigation he had 
witnessed. To the Secretary of the Navy he wrote ^ that from all the 
intelligence received from the northward, the previous winter had been 
an exceptionally mild one. The revenue cutter " Rush " had just come 
south from her cruise to the northward, twenty miles north and east of 
east Cape Siberia, without having encountered any ice. This seemed 
to be news of a most encouraging nature. 

DeLong deplored the necessity of having loaded his ship so deeply at 
San Francisco, since this had made the progress so slow under head 
winds and swell, that it was doubtful whether he could profit by this 
open water in the Arctic sea in the effort to gain a high latitude that 
season. He would proceed to St. Michael's, and if nothing there could 
be heard of Nordenskiold, from thence to St. Lawrence Bay. 

At St. Michael's the ship filled in further stores, purchased forty 
dogs, and engaged two Indians, Aneguin and Alexai, as hunters and dog 
drivers. No nev/s had been received, nor had the schooner ''Fanny A. 



376 AMBRICAK EXPLOEATIOKS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Hyde " arrived from San Francisco with coal and extra stores ; by this 
the commander was seriously embarrassed. He must wait for coal, 
and must still delay by crossing to St. Lawrence Bay ; meanwhile the 
fine season was " slipping away, when he might reach Kellett Land and 
push on to the northward." The schooner " F. A. Hyde" came in 
on the 18th and followed the "Jeannette" to the Bay which was 
reached on the 25th. Engineer Melville, from that port, wrote : "It 



LIEUTENANT JOHN W. DANENHOWER, U. S. N. 

Entered the service, Sept. 25, 1866; promoted to be Ensign, July 13, 1871; to be Master, Sept. 27, 
1873; Lieutenant, Aug. 2, 1879. 

was very fortunate for the ship that she had the schooner to carry our 
extra coal and stores over here, for on the Avay we were caught in a 
terrible gale of wind, and, owing to the condition of the ship, and deeply 
laden as we were, the sea had a clean sweep over us. It stove in our 
forward parts, carried away the bridge, caved the bulkheads, and in fact 
just drowned us out. Had we the other stuff on board, we must have 
foundered, or else got it overboard in time. We leave here for East 
Cape to-day, having taken on board all our stores, and we are in even 
much worse sea condition than we were before ; but we think that 
maybe, when we get into the ice where the wind can't raise a sea, we 



NEWS OF NORDENSKIOLD. 377 

will be all right." The commander wrote that as he got out clear of 
land into Bering sea, he found the water so shallow that a very ugly 
sea was raised in a short time, and that, he had experienced a gale of 
thirty hours during which he had to lay the ship to and ride it out. 

Before leaving the Bay a native chief told of his having been, three 
months before, on board a steamer smaller than the " Jeannette," and 
found on her two officers who spoke English, and a third who spoke the 
Tchuktchi language like a native. The name of this officer, as far as 
could be heard from this native chief, was Horpish^ the true name being 
as DeLong justly believed, that of Lieutenant Nordquist, spoken of in 
Nordenskiold's voyage of the " Vega," as having learned to speak the 
Tchuktchi tongue. DeLong came to the conclusion that it was Nor- 
denskiold's steamer which had been seen, but as nothing had been made 
sure, and his last authentic advices from the Secretary had been that 
the Professor, when last heard from, was at Cape Serdze Kamen, he 
thought it his duty to go there, although the distance was one hundred 
and thirty miles ; on the 27th, therefore, he towed the transport 
schooner out of the harbor, and stood ori a north north-east course 
toward Bering Strait. 

On the 29th he attempted to land at the Cape, lat. 67° 12' N., but 
found so much ice moving about as to make this impossible. On the 
30th, Lieutenant Chipp, accompanied by Dunbar, Collins, and the native 
Alexai, landed and learned through Alexai from an old squaw, that 
the steamer had wintered on the east of Koliutchin Bay ; and on the 
31st the same party, together with Master Danenhower, at last made 
sure by a landing on the bay that the " Vega " had certainly wintered 
there and gone south. Swedish, Danish, and Russian buttons found in 
the hut on shore, and traded for by Chipp for his vest buttons as 
cash, were proofs enough of the " Vega's " visit, as no other ship had 
been i^ that part of the world with Swedish, Danish, and Russian 
officers on board. Papers were also found written in Swedish and 
having on them the word Stockholm. 

At 2 P.M. DeLong held divine service, all hearts being thankful that 
at last they knew that Nordenskiold was safe, and the "Jeannette" 
might proceed on her journey to Wrangell Land. In his journal he 



378 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

wrote, " If Nordenskiold had left any kind of a written paper at St, 
Lawrence Bay or at Cape Serdze Kamen, he could have saved much 
uncertainty," but he apologizes for the lack of any record. The delay 
of the " Jeannette " seemed, however, fatal to her purpose of reaching 
Wrangell Land for a winter security. 



IN THE PACK. 

On the sixth following day, the ship was beginning to be closed off 
by the remorseless pack. That day his journal entry was: "I am 
hoping and praying to get the ship into Herald Island to make winter 
quarters. As far as the eye can range is ice, and not only does it look 
as if it never had broken up, but it also looks as if it never would. 
Yesterday, I hoped that to-day would make an opening for us into the 
land; to-day I hope that to-morrow will do it. I suppose a gale of 
wind would break up the pack, but the pack might break us up. This 
morning shows some pools of thin ice and water, but as they are discon- 
nected and we cannot jump the ship over obstructions ; they are of no 
use yet to us." On the 8th, still undaunted, he again wrote, " I con- 
sider it an exceptional state of the ice that we are having just now, and 
count upon the September gales to break up the pack, and perhaps 
open leads to Herald Island, I want the ship to be in condition to move 
without dela}^. Besides, I am told that in the latter part of September 
and early part of October there is experienced in these latitudes quite 
an Indian summer, and I shall not begin to expect wintering in the 
pack until this Indian summer is given a chance to liberate us." The 
liberation, as is too well known, was not to come. Yet DeLong at this 
very point did, it would seem, the best that could be effected. In the 
judgment of the Naval Court of Inquiry, "Either he had to return to 
some port to the southward, and pass the winter there in idleness, thus 
sacrificing all chances of pushing his researches to the northward until 
the following summer, or else he must endeavor to force the vessel 
through to Wrangell Island, then erroneously supposed to be a large 
continent, to winter there, and prosecute his explorations by sledges. 
The chances of accomplishing this latter alternative were sufficiently 



THE NIP. 379 

good at the time to justify him in choosing it ; and, indeed had he done 
otherwise, he might fairly have been thought wanting in the high 
qualities necessary for an explorer." He had long before expressed the 
opinion that putting a ship into the pack was the last thing to do. 

On the day from which the journal entry above has been cited, at 
1 P.M. the fog lifted and there was seen a chance to make a, little head- 
way toward Herald Island ; the " Jeannette " worked hard to force her 




GEORGE W. MELVILLE, CHIEF ENGINEER, U.S.N. 

Appointed Assistant Engineer, July 29, 1861 ; Passed-Assistant Engineer, Dec. 16, 1862 ; Chief 
Engineer, Jan. 30, 1865. 

way wherever a crack or narrow opening showed itself between the two 
floes, even where the ice of the floes was from ten to fifteen feet thick. 
By judicious ramming and backing and ramming again, the ship's head, 
by the help of the steam-winch, was shoved into weak places where the 
helm could not be turned, but within three hours, she was brought 
finally up again to solid floes ; thick fog settled down and the ice- 
apehors were planted. This day, snow-goggles were served out to all 
hands with orders to wear them. The position of the " Jeannette " was 
established by observation to be 71° 35' N., 175° 5' 48" W. She already 
heeled five degrees to starboard. 



380 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

September 13, at 8 a.m. Lieutenant Chipp and Engineer Melville, 
Ice-Pilot Dunbar, and the native Alexai started out on the floe with a 
sled and eight dogs, to attempt a landing on Herald Island, toward 
some harbor within which DeLong's lingering hopes still looked; he 
also thought it possible that drift-wood might be found on the island 
to help out the winter's fuel. But the party returned without having 
met with any success for either of these objects; no place could be 
seen offering any protection for a ship, nor any driftwood.. Alexai 
shot a seal and brought it back in the boat, and on the second day 
following, DeLong with Melville, Chipp, and Dunbar, shot two bears, 
after their escape of some liiiles from the traps. The bill of fare was as 
yet sufficiently comfortable. 

But at the close of the month, the " Jeannette's " position was far 
from being such, as she was still held between the floes as in a vise, 
continuously heeled over five degrees, and drifting with the pack. In 
the four days from the 21st to the 24th the drift was twenty miles to 
the north, one degree west. Herald Island had entirely disappeared; 
but by a change in the drift to the southwest, by October 3 the island 
reappeared in plain sight, bearing south-southeast true. On the 14th 
land was again seen in the same quarter and now very distinctly ; and 
on the 21st another distinct view was had, the land appearing as one 
large island with three peaks. Seen again on the 28th, the "Jean- 
nette " being in 71° 57' N., 177° 51' W., DeLong believed it to be the 
north side of Wrangell Land, but he no longer thought it a continent, 
it was "either one large island or an archipelago." 

The night of the 28th was beautiful, " the heavens were cloudless, 
the moon very nearly full and shining brightly, and every star twink- 
ling; the air perfectly calm, and not a sound to break the spell. The 
ship and her surroundings made a perfect picture. Standing out in 
bold relief against the blue sky, every rope and spar with a thick coat 
of snow and frost, — she was simply a beautiful spectacle. The long 
lines of wire reaching to the tripod and observatory, round frosted 
lumps here and there where a dog lay asleep ; sleds standing on end 
against the steam-cutter to make a foreground for the ship ; surrounded 
with a bank (rail high) of snow and ice ; and in every direction as far 



THE SHIP ADRIFT. 381 

« 

as the eye could reach, a confused, irregular ice-field, — would have 
made a picture seldom seen." 

On the following day a curious but not unusual point in Arctic 
history occurred among the dogs of which the Expedition had a good 
supply. One of a team which was out to hunt some walruses killed 
the day previous, deserted, by an escape from his harness^ The other 
dogs attempted to chase him, and the native Alexai quickly said : 
" Bom bye other dogs him plenty whip." Truly enough, for after the 
return of the team. Bingo being found at a safe distance, had been 
chewed up so badly by the' others that he died in a few minutes. The 
Arctic dog will not bear laziness on the part of a fellow-dog in har- 
ness. 

November 6, the first startling crack occurred in the floe, compelling 
the removal from it of the meteorological instruments to the ship ; but 
she did not move an inch, and, on the 7th, the opening again closed. 
The 11th was a day of great anxiety ; at 6 a.m. the ice was again in 
motion, and the ship groaned and creaked at every pressure, threaten- 
ing at each to break adrift. " Masses from fifteen to twenty-five feet 
in height when up-ended, slid along at various angles of elevation and 
jam, and between and among them were large masses of debris like a 
marble-yard adrift." A break was made in the floe across the ship's 
bow, and a projecting floe berg ploughed its way like a wedge to break 
the floe ahead." At 4 p,m. the movement was renewed. Every movable 
thing was again brought on board, the dogs being confined by a fence. 

Like trying experiences were repeated again and again, until on the 
the 24th by the action of the southwest wind the " Jeannette " was 
once more for a little season afloat. Lieutenant Danenhower says, 
that, on the 24th of November the half cradle on which the port side 
had rested could be seen about a thousand yards distant,^ and this 
immense lead was open, but of very limited length. The appearance of 
the ice could be likened to an immense cake as it comes from the oven, 
broken and cracked on the surface. "A few mornings later the drift 
ice came down on us under the starboard bow, and wedged the ship off 
her cradle, and she went adrift in the gale. This was about 8 A.Si. 
She drifted all day until 7 P.M., when she brought up in some young 



382 a:\ierican explorations in the ice zones. 

ice, and was frozen in solid again. It was dark, in the long night, and 
there was no chance of working the pack had it been good judgment to 
do so. We reckoned that she had drifted at least forty miles with the 
ice in her immediate vicinity. Previous to this time the ship had stood 
the pressure in the most remarkable manner. On one occasion, I 
stood on the deck-house above a sharp tongue of ice that pressed the 
port side just abaft the forechains, and in the wake of the immense 




DR. J. M. A^MBLEE, U.S.N. 

Entered the service as Assistant Surgeon, April 1, 1874 ; Passed- Assistant Surgeon, 

June, 15, 1877. 

truss that had been strengthened at Mare Island, by the urgent advice 
of Commodore William H. Shock. The fate of the " Jeannette " was 
then delicately balanced, and when I saw the immense tongue break 
and harmlessly underrun the ship I gave heartfelt thanks to Shock's 
good judgment. She would groan from stem to stern ; the cabin-doors 
were often jammed so that we could not get out in case of an emer- 
gency, and the heavy truss was imbedded three quarters of an inch into 
the ceiling. The safety of the ship at that time was due entirely to the 
truss."" Recording the experiences which have been just named, De 
Long says ; " This steady strain on one's mind is fearful. Seemingly 



THE FOREFOOT BREAKS. 383 

we are not secure for a moment, and yet we can take no measures for 
our security. A crisis may occur at any moment, and we can do noth- 
ing but be thankful in the morning that it has not come during the 
night, and at night that it has not come since morning. Living over a 
powder-mill, waiting for an explosion, would be a similar mode of exist- 
ence. . . . Sleeping with all my clothes on, and starting up anxiously 
at every snap or crack in the ice outside, or the ship's frame inside, 
most effectually prevents my getting a proper kind or amount of rest, and 
yet I do not see anything else in store for me for some time to come." 

Christmas Day was the dreariest day he ever experienced, passed 
certainly in the dreariest part of the world ; yet it was something to 
have had as yet no serious mishap. The crew came aft to wish the 
officers a merry day, and made music for them in the deck-house. The 
ship's bells at midnight of the 31st called all hands together to give 
three cheers on the quarter-deck for the New Year, and for the 
*' Jeannette." 

Lieutenant Danenhower was now unfortunately placed on the sick- 
list, being in danger of losing the sight of his left eye. Surgeon Ambler 
found it necessary that he should remain in total darkness in his room. 
DeLong was very much distressed at the news, as the Lieutenant's 
efforts had kept off the moping for many an hour, and he feared the 
effect of such confinement on the mind. The sick man did not improve 
during the month of January. 

Forced anxieties for the condition of the ship were intensified 
on the 15th, 19th, and 22d. On the 15th the floe was found to have 
cracked and opened about twenty feet from the starboard side, the 
crack rounding the bow and running in one direction in the prolonga- 
tion of the stem, and in another across the stern. At 3 p.m. it had 
widened to eight feet in width, another fissure appearing on the port 
side about one hundred feet distant. On the 19th there was a loud 
noise as of the cracking of the ship's frame, and at 7.45 A. M. the wind 
suddenly shifted from north to northwest, the ice began to move, and 
the ship evidently received tremendous pressure amid the groaning and 
grinding floes. The ice moving to the eastward, piled up large masses 
of the floe under the stem, hreakiyig the fore-foot. 



384 A^IERICAK EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

PUMPING BEGUN JANUARY 19, 1880. 

To add to the anxieties of the ship's company two streams of water 
an inch in diameter then began to flow through the filling which had 
been put in below the berth deck, and the water soon stood eighteen 
inches deep in the fore-peak and thirty-six inches in the fore-hold, while 
in the fire-room it was over the floor-plates on the starboard side. The 
deck pumps were at once rigged and manned, and by the indomitable 
energy of Melville, as credited to him in DeLong's journal, after five 
hours' severe labor, the steam pump was set to work. The temperature 
of the fire-room was — 29°, outside of it, it had run down to — 44°^ 
one of the mercurial thermometers freezing solid. The barometer had 
ranged from 29.62° to 30°. An attempt to cut out the ice under the 
bow by digging away some of the pieces which had been piled up, 
served only to bring the water over the ice beneath, which by freezing 
effectually stopped work. No injury could be detected outside, but the 
correct judgment Avas already formed that the ship's fore-foot had been 
broken off or twisted, starting the starboard strakes. On the 22d, at 
midnight, the water still stood nineteen inches deep at the fire-roorS 
bilge, and at the step of the fore-mast. The barometer rose from 
30.05° to 30.28° ; the thermometer was —28° at midnight, —37° at 
noon. 

This day, at the urgent advice of the Surgeon, an operation was per- 
formed on Lieutenant Danenhower's left eye, and borne with heroic 
endurance by the patient. To this expression DeLong, while referring 
to the possible necessity of another operation, adds : " My anxieties are 
beginning to crowd on me. A disabled and leaking ship, a seriously 
sick oflicer, and an uneasy and terrible pack, with the constantly dimin- 
ishing coal-pile, and at a distance of two hundred miles from the nearest 
Siberian settlement — these are enough to think of for a life-time." It 
was some relief to all this that by the 27th it was found that the Sewell" 
pump was making two thousand two hundred and fifty gallons per hour, 
holding the water in check. The leak had been diminished from the 
23d over one-third. Two of the crew, Nindemann and Sweetman, were 
working all day from 9 A. M. to 11 P. M. in stuffing plaster-of-paris and 



RETURN OF LIGHT. 385 

ashes in the spaces between frames through holes cut in the ceiling 
above the berth deck on each side ; their work soon diminished the 
leak four hundred and fifty gallons per hour. 

The night of the Arctic regions had given to each one of the ship's 
company the usual bleached appearance, but with the exception of the 
sick officer, the company were still in fair health. Their spirits had 
been raised on the 26th by the reappearance of the sun. All hands 
turned out to enjoy the pleasing novelty of seeing genuine sun-shadows 
for the first time in seventy-one days, and, although the glare at first 
made the eye blink like an owl, DeLong could not get enough of the 
pleasant sight. The light was specially cheering, for when the sun was 
on the meridian to the southward, the full moon was on the meridian 
at the northern horizon so that for twenty-four hours there was sun- 
light or full-moonlight all the time. 

The month of February still found at work the steam-pump which 
was to be in very successful use till May. It made forty strokes a 
minute, pumping out two thousand two hundred and fifty gallons an 
hour. 

On the 1st and 2d of the month two large bears were killed, the stom- 
ach of the larger one containing nothing but several small stones resem- 
bling pieces of slate. Impelled by hunger, he had tried to get on board 
ship, attracted by the meat of the first bear hung up to a girt-line. 

On the 6th of the month, in measuring the thickness of the floe, it 
was found that another floe had shoved in under it, which gave DeLong 
reason to think that this had been the case all around the ship, and that 
the control of the leak had been due to the underlying floes of ice unit- 
ing by freezing and lowering the water-head in the vicinity of the leak. 
To this record DeLong's journal added the sadly prophetic words, " If 
this be the case, we shall have our hands full at the breaking up." 

By the loth the pumping had been so perfected as to hold the water 
in check without resorting to pumps to be worked by the main boiler, 
and this had very encouragingly reduced the consumption of coal to 
four hundred pounds per day only, in place of the one thousand or one 
thousand two hundred which would have been consumed by the main 
boiler furnaces. But the troubles seemed to thicken. The water forced 



386 AT^IERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

its way through the filling between the frames to the berth-deck, mak- 
ing it wet, sloppy, and unhealthful. Sweetman partially succeeded in 
stopping this by putting in more filling, building a little bulkhead 
under the berths, and boring a hole into the deck to let the water off 
into the fore-peak. On the 19th DeLong wrote : " All our hoped-for 
explorations, and perhaps discoveries this coming summer, seem slipping 
away from us, and we have nothing ahead but taking a leaking ship to 
the United States. At the best I do not like to contemplate any further 
accident, although in our position almost anything might happen to 
us." On the 23d, Washington's birthday was celebrated by dressing 
the ship with American ensigns at the mastheads and flagstaff, and the 
Union Jack forward; the 22d had been Sunday. Beyond flag-hoisting 
there was no holiday, for there was too much work to be done. 

March 1, Lieutenant Danenhower had the sixth operation on his eye 
performed, with the Surgeon's statement that others would probably 
be necessary at short intervals ; he still kept his health and spirits. The 
ship had again drifted northwest, her position being determined by 
Chipp on the 6th, to be lat. 72° 12' N., long. 175° 30' W. ; by the 13th 
the drift was again thirty-three miles north and 55° W., and by the 
27th, fourteen miles further to north, and 63° W. 

DeLong thought that he was extremely fortunate in lying so long 
without serious disturbance. The. upper part of the propeller frame 
had been uncovered by digging away the ice under the stern, and no 
sign of any damage was apparent there. The ice also had been dug 
away under the bows to a point on the stem where the draught would 
be six and one half feet, at which depth diligent search could detect no 
injury to the bow, and DeLong came more than ever to the correct 
opinion that the ship's fore-foot was the seat of the damage. Unhappily 
at midnight, after the digging, the pressure of the water underneath 
was too much for the thin layer of remaining ice, and holes were broken 
through sufficient to flood the large pit under the bow. He says, " If 
we only could get down to the leak and tinker at it, we might do some- 
thing. If we could have open water enough, we might build a coffer- 
dam and get it under the bow, or if we could get the ship into a harbor 
and beach her, we would be all right ; but these things seem impos- 



COAL SUPPLY FAILING. 387 

sible." At the same time great confused masses were piled up thirty 
and forty feet in height, and Sharvell, one of the crew, reported that 
he saw, about five miles northwest of the ship, ice piled up as high as 
the masthead ; he thought the destruction of the ship by its reaching 
that mountain of ice, or by that mountain of ice reaching her, merely a 
question of time. On the 24th and 25th eight times as much water as 
before had come into the fire-room ; no greater amount seemed to come 
in forward, but it was necessary to keep the steam-cutter's engine going 
nearly all the time aft. It was impossible to discover what could have 
gone under the ship to affect the leak in this way. 

An immense walrus had been shot, thirty of the dogs and four of 
the men being unable to drag him in over the rough ice until cut in 
two. Nindemann estimated his weight at two thousand eight hundred 
pounds ; a prize for dog food, which Alexai had secured. Strangely 
enough the observations of the 30th placed the " Jeannette " almost 
identically in the same position with that occupied four months before. 

The look-out for steaming, except for a few days, was already begin- 
ning to be almost hopeless, as with all the economy which had been 
brought into use, sixty-three tons of coal was the utmost which could 
be expected to be on hand by May 1. Thirty-five tons of this kept for 
the possibility of a second winter in the pack, would leave but twenty- 
eight for steaming, pumping, and cooking during the summer, yet the 
consumption of coal in pumping the ship had been a necessity, for hand^ 
pumping alone would have probably placed many on the sick list. But 
a happy thought came into DeLong's mind ; pumping might be done 
by constructing a windmill. Consulting . Melville as to making the 
necessary machinery on board ship, the engineer thought out all the 
details and commenced making drawings, and on the 17th mounted the 
windmill as an experiment on the ice without sails. Three days after- 
wards it was attached to the shifted bilge-pump and set to work ; its 
sails, made at first of sheeting, having too little surface, were improved 
by substituting for these, sheet-tin fans, utilized from the empty coffee 
and sugar tins. The winds, however, were light. 

By the 25th of April, a meridian altitude showed for the lat. 72° 
52' N., a progress northward ; as the water also was deepening, DeLong 



388 A^rERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

began again to hope that there was a chance of a speedy breaking 
up of the ice by the wind, or by the yet to be discovered current ; 
but on the 26th the sounding suddenly dropped thirteen and one half 
fathoms less, the di^ift Avas northwest. He was anxious to get on^ 
hoping that 73" was a barrier which once passed, they could go forward 
with some credit to the name the ship bore. On the last day of the 
month the total drift as shown by observation, amounted to eighty-four 
and two-tenth miles to and fro ; "made good in a straight line forty-six 
miles N., 50° W." The zigzag course of the " Jeannette " was begin- 
ning to mark out the whole strange line shown on the Circumpolar 
Map in the Pocket of this volume. The drift to the northwest was 
extremely disheartening. DeLong had constantly hoped to be set 
northeast, but according to the experience of all in the Arctic, — the 
English relief ships for Franklin, the whalers, and, very recently, the 
observations of Lieutenant Eay, U. S. Signal Service Corps, stationed 
near Point Barrow, the ice masses of the north do not remain open. 

In May, the Commander's journal has the following striking pass- 
age : " Whatever theory may have been advanced as to currents in this 
part of the Arctic Ocean, I think our .drift is demonstrating that they 
are the local creation of the wind for the time being. As our drift in 
general resulting direction has been northwest since our first beset- 
ment, so is it a fact that the greater amount of wind has been from the 
southeast, our short and irregular side-drift east and west and occasion- 
ally back to south being due to correspondingly short and irregular 
winds from northwest or east. A glance at my wind-record will make 
that clear. . . . Theory as to our movement is long since abandoned in 
my mind, giving way to facts based on experience. Theory may assert 
how we ought to drift, but our position from day to day shows how we 
do drift, and I accept the situation." Yet a lingering hope for the best 
prompted him after a short drift east, to write : " We have evidently 
gotten under way again, though from some reason we are prevented 
from going to the westward, perhaps by a heavy barrier of ice, against 
which our iield is slowl}^ grinding along. I have had an idea that our 
drift of late may be explained in some such manner ; our field turning 
on a pivot as it advances, and eventually bringing us to its highest 



IMPERFECT OBSERVATIONS. 389 

point will throw us off to tlie eastward. The northwesting having been 
accomplished we are now doing our northing, and then going to north- 
east, will eventually be carried along east, by the current which sets east 
through the Archipelago north of the American Continent. Time will 
show the fallacy or the truth of this supposition ; but meanwhile it 
affords a subject for contemplation." But soon after this DeLong 
again wrote : " A drift of five and a half miles to south 38° E. The 
irony of fate ! How long, O Lord ? How long ? As to there being 
any warm current reaching to a high latitude, we have found none. 
I am inclined to agree with Lieutenant Weyprecht, when he says, 'The 
Gulf Stream does not regulate the limits of the ice ; but the ice, set in 
motion by w^inds, regulates the limits of the warmer Gulf Stream water; 
and I pronounce a thermometric gateway to the pole a delusion and a 
snare.' Of course, if any warm current came through Bering Strait 
it would be the Kuro Siwo, and our sea temperatures have indicated 
no such fact. . . If we only had something to do, that would be ad- 
vancing the interests of the Expedition, there would be some excite- 
ment in the life. Hourly meteorological observations are taken, it is 
true, and the ship's position daily obtained by sights, and then we 
have to stop. Magnetic observations of any value are impossible, 
because of our ever-changing positions. Rough observations for the 
variations and dip are obtained, but they will serve only for con- 
venient approximate reference, and will have no exact scientific impor- 
tance. The constant change of position prevents any correct pendulum 
experiments from being made. No astronomical observations, except 
determinations of latitude and longitude, with sextant and artificial 
horizon, have been possible, because the erection of the observatory 
and the motmting of the instruments on the ice, in our situation, 
would have exposed them to loss should a break-up occur. Sopndings 
are made daily, and specimens of the bottom obtained and preserved 
for future reference. Temperatures of the surface water are recorded 
every day at the sounding-hole, and that exhausts hydrography for us. 
At this temperature it is not practicable to add water-cups and sea- 
thermometers to our lead-line, for it ices up so fast, and breaks so 
readily when frozen, that we might lose cups and thermometers. Natu- 



890 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

ral History is well looked out for. Any animal or bird that comes- 
near the ship does so at his peril." 

" The important point of the drift," says Lieutenant Danenhower, 
" is in the fact that the ship traversed an immense area of ocean, at 
times gyrating in almost perfect circles, her course and the observa- 
tions of her officers proving that land does not exist in that area, 
and establishing many facts of value as regards the depth and character 
of the ocean bed and its temperatures, animal life, etc. It is matter of 
lasting regret that the two thousand observations of Lieutenant Chipp, 
an accomplished electrician, especially upon the disturbances of the 
galvanometer during auroras, as recommended to be made by the 
Smithsonian Listitution, as well as the meteorological observations of 
Mr. Collins, perished with the lamented young officers in the wreck of 
their boat on the Siberian shore." 

May 27, the windmill-pump by its connection with the boiler tube- 
pump was now rendering valuable service, reflecting great credit on 
Melville, Sweetman, and Lee. 

Before the month closed, the log was headed " one hundred and 
ninety miles northwest of Herald Island." The total drift was one 
hundred miles, eighty-two miles to N. 38° W. The average temper- 
ature had been °18.46, lowest, — °8.5, the highest 35°. 



SUMMER IN THE PACK. 

The ninth chapter of Mrs. DeLong's voyage of the " Jeannette " 
bears the sad title, "A Frozen Summer, June-August, 1880." The hopes 
of release for the ship from her icy cradle seemed well grounded by 
the thermometer reading 37°, with a fall of rain on the first day of June. 
Fires were discontinued in the cabin and berth-deck, and the record 
could be made that there was a gradual resuming of ship-shape propor- 
tions to be ready for a start northward and eastward, or northward and 
westward, whichever the ice and the winds would permit ; and DeLong 
had been again hoping strongly day after day for some indication of a 
coming liberation. The decks were rapidly clearing, and he thought he 
was surely approaching the time when nothing would remain but to 



FALSE HOPES. 391 

hang the rudder and make sail for some satisfactory result of the cruise. 
But, from the first day of the month to the longest of the year, fogs, 
snows, and gales were almost the daily log entry. The drift, contrary to 
all expectation, had been generally to the southeast. For more than 
nine months the ship had been driven here and there at the will of the 
winds. On the 30th her position was 72° 19' 41" N., 178° 27' 30" E. 
fifty miles south, 9° E. of her place on the first. She was heeling 4° to 
starboard (3° all winter), and her doubling on that side was about four 
inches above the water. From the crow's nest it could be seen that she 
was in the centre of an ice-island, a lane of water in some places a 
quarter of a mile wide, surrounding her at the distance of about a 
mile. Much effort had been made to liberate the screw without suc- 
cess. The drift on that day was only one mile. 

The journal of July 8 makes special reference to the thickness of 
the floes around and underneath the " Jeannette." It recites the facts, 
that " in September, 1879, after ramming the ship through forty miles of 
leads, she was pushed into a crevice between two heavy floes subsequently 
found to be thirteen feet thick ; a depth caused by the overriding and 
uniting of one floe with another by regelation under pressure. When 
she was pushed out into open water November following, she was 
afloat, but the next day, iced in." By January 17, 1880, the ice had a 
thickness of four feet around the vessel, later measurements being ren- 
dered impossible by the confused massing which took place two days 
afterward. As the leak had now almost subsided more firmly and cor- 
rectly, DeLong believed that he was buoyed up by a floe extending 
down and under the keel. "Let us hope," he wrote, "that one of 
these days the mass will break up and let us down to our bearings." 
How sad these bearings were to prove ! The forefoot was irre- 
trievably wrenched. The ship must sink immediately on the^ " break- 
ing up." 

During the remainder of the month of July, and throughout August, 
the monotonous record of the previous months of routine duty on board 
ship, and of drift with no release from the ice, remained with scarcely 
a variation from day to day. August 17, DeLong writes : " Our glor- 
ious summer is passing away; it is painful beyond expression to go 



892 AMERICAIT EXPLORATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

round the ice in the morning and see no change since the night before, 
and to look the last thing at night at the same thing you saw in the 
morning. . . . High as our temperature is (34°), foggy weather a daily 
occurrence, yet here we are hard and fast, with ponds here and there 
two or three feet deep, with an occasional hole through to the sea. 
Does the ice never find an outlet ? It has no regular set in any direc- 
tion north, south, east, or west, as far as I can judge, but slowly 
surges in obedience to wind pressure, and grinds back again to an 
equilibrium when the pressure ceases. Are there no tides in this 
ocean ? . . . Full moon or new moon, last quarter or first quarter, the 
ice is as immovable as a rock. ... It is hard to believe that an impene- 
trable barrier exists clear up to the Pole, and yet as far as we have 
gone, we have not seen one speck of land north of Herald Island." 
The average drift for the month had been to the southeast. 

September 1, the ship at last was on an even keel, and this had 
occurred very quietl}^ and without shock ; one or two large chunks of 
ice rose to the surface and then all was still. The ship was yet 
immovable, her keel and forefoot being held in the cradles. After 
sawing under the forefoot five or six feet, in the hope of getting once 
more properly afloat, it was found that more water came in, and the 
sawing must be arrested. The well-grounded apprehension existed 
that the broken stem or sprung garboards were firmly held in the ice, 
and that work on the ship would only tend to open the rent still more 
widely. With the prospect of a second winter in the pack, and with 
but fifty-three tons of coal, there was no desire to go back to steam 
pumping, from which the ship had been relieved by the use of the quar- 
ter-deck pump which was now bringing by the hand one hundred and 
fourteen gallons per hour. The comfort of being on an even keel was 
very great, but the hope of keeping the ship afloat if she should reach 
open water, was to all very questionable. Before the close of the 
month, the idea of open water was abandoned, and preparations made 
for a second winter in the pack. What gave the most concern and 
anxiety was to make it possible for a readiness to abandon the ship 
suddenly in case of disaster. As long as enough of the vessel should 
remain for shelter, it was preferable to camping on the ice ; and the 



THE ARCTIC NIGHT. 393 

lamented Commander already could " conceive no greater forlorn hope 
than to attempt to reach Siberia over the ice with a winter's cold sap- 
ping one's life at every step." 

There was no apprehension of the lack of food, several bears being 
again secured. With the exception of Lieutenant Danenhower's case, 
and that of the temporary sickness of two of the crew, the general 
health of the ship's company remained good, the quick restoration of 
the sick showing a freedom from all taint of scurvy. Lieutenant 
Danenhower had been under severe treatment for nine months, but 
for his eyes only. 

PLEASANT OBSERVATIONS. 

In some relief doubtless to the monotonous journal entries of these 
months, the " Voyage of the ' Jeannette ' " contains several specially 
graphic pictures, the first of which here cited is from DeLong's pen, 
and the second from Lieutenant Chipp's.. 

" October 16. I have heretofore^ made several attempts to describe 
the beauty of these Arctic winter nights, but have found my powers too 
feeble to do the subject justice. They must be seen to be appreciated. 
It is so hard to make a descriptive picture of moon, stars, ice, and 
ship, and unluckily photography cannot come into play in this tempera- 
ture to supply a real picture. Imagine a moon nearly full, a cloudless 
sky, brilliant stars, a pure white waste of snow-covered ice, which 
seems firm and crisp under your feet, a ship standing out in bold relief, 
every rope and thread plainly visible, and enormousl}^ enlarged by 
accumulations of fluffy and down-like frost feathers ; and you have a 
crude picture of the scene. But to fill in and properly understand the 
situation, one must experience the majestic and awful silence which 
generall}^ prevails on these occasions, and causes one to feel hgw tri- 
fling and insignificant he is in comparison with such grand works in 
nature. The brightness is wonderful. The reflection of moonlight 
from bright ice-spots makes brilliant effects, and should a stray piece of 
tin be near you, it seems to have the light of a dazzling gem. A win- 
dow in the deck-house looks like a calcium light when the moonlight 
strikes it at the proper angle, and makes the feeble light from an oil* 



394 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

lamp within, seem ridiculous when the angle is changed. Standing one 
hundred yards away from the ship one has a scene of the grandest, 
wildest, and most awful beauty." 

On the following midnight, he says, "the scene was almost worth 
the imprisonment that accompanied it. One half the sky was covered 
by cumulo-stratus clouds, moving from north to south, and at that 
moment, extending from the zenith to the southern horizon, obscuring- 
the moon and the stars (north .of the zenith the sky was clear, except 
a streak of cirro-stratus above a small bank of rising cumulo-stratus) ► 
-Immediately following the first-named cumulo-stratus clouds, and near 
the zenith, was a faint auroral arch extending from east to west, with 
its ends slightly curving to the southward, and hidden by the clouds- 
near the horizon. As the clouds nearly uncovered the east end, a mass 
of bright-green light shot up, and spread like a fan over 10° of arc ; 
and just as the east end was completely uncovered, the mass changed 
into brilliant green spiral curtains, terminating a bright white arch 
through the zenith to west. After perhaps a minute, the clouds being 
well clear of the arch, the light paled and lost colors, and the arch-ends 
straggled back to northwest and northeast, the centre being at the 
zenith. The moon then became entirely uncovered, the floe seemed 
lighted as in midday, and but few faint streaks of arches remained 
thin and almost indeterminate." 

At the later winter date of December 27, at 3 A. M., Lieutenant 
Chipp noted " a bright auroral curtain about 10° above the horizon from 
east-southeast to northwest, generally white, but occasionally showing 
a green shade, and rarely a brownish-red color, which disappeared as 
soon as seen. Above this curtain the sky was of a deep blue black, 
through which the stars shone brilliantly as they did also through the 
deepest part of the curtain. Above the deep blue-black were irregular 
spirals and streaks of white light, in continuous motion appearing and 
disappearing : rpidly. From east to west, through the zenith, was an 
irregular arch formed of detached streaks of brownish-red light, among 
which white light would suddenly appear, and as suddenly vanish. 
This arch was 5° broad. Stars shone with apparently undiminished 
brilliancy through the deepest color." 



LAND DISCOVERED. 395 

It must be already a matter of much surprise to the reader, awaken- 
ing the deepest interest and sympathy in these few pages of "The 
Journal," to mark how these disappointed explorers, conscious of lost 
hopes of usefulness, and of almost lost hope of freedom from ice 
imprisonment, kept up their good cheer. Christmas da}^ and New 
Year's day had witnessed the repetition of celebrations as if at home ; 
and the amusements necessary for health even in Arctic solitude and 
its monotony were renewed. There never, perhaps, was equal proof 
of the eternal springing up of hope than here, even after the severest 
reverses. There is abundant confirmation of the declaration written 
by the late Admiral Davis in his reference to the Polaris part}^ — 
("Narrative of the North Polar Expedition of 1871") — that a trust 
in Divine Providence never deserts the breast of a true seaman. De 
Long does not seem to have omitted a single reading of Divine Service 
to his officers on shipboard, and doubtless gave himself entirely into 
the hands of the Omnipotent, expressing frequently his thankfulness 
for what health, comfort, and hope remained — and this to the last 
hour. January 1, 1881, he wrote : " I begin the new year by turning 
over a new leaf in this book, and I hope in God we are turning over a 
new leaf in our book of luck. I am thankful for our preservation 
among many perils." But winter went on, spring came, that is to say 
as named in the calendar ; but no spring for the " Jeannette ; " no 
release ; no assurance of it, nor even from destruction of the ship at 
any hour. 

THE SPIII:N-G of 1881. 

The first break of the monotony came in May. On the 16th, Ice- 
Master Dunbar called Chipp to look at Land^ clearly enough an island, 
bearing, by DeLong's quickly made observations, S. 78° 45' (magnetic), 
N. 83° 15' W. true — the first land to greet the eye since March 24, 
1880, fourteen months before. What it had to do in the economy of 
nature standing desolate among the icy wastes was not the question ; 
it might be the spot to which the ducks and geese had been flying, and 
if the ship could get some of them for a change, what a treat ! " Four- 
teen months without anything to look at but ice and sky, and twenty 



396 A^IERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

months drifting in the pack will make a little mass of volcanic rock 
like our island as pleasing to the eye as an oasis in the desert." On 
the following day observations placed the ship in lat'. 76° 43' 38'', long., 
E. 161° 42' 30"; the rocky cliffs of the island appeared with a snow- 
covered slope, the highest and further corner seeming to be a volcano 
top. The temperature noted was maximum 11° 5', minimum 5° 5'. The 
*' Jeannette " drifted past on the north side ; the ice was so broken, and 
the pack running so rapidly that DeLong did not think it prudent to 
make an attempt to land. Sketches were made from the crow's nest. 

May 24, the pleasing sight was renewed, more land was ahead, and 
the ice very slack, with many large lanes of water varying in length 
from an eighth of a mile to three miles, and in width from twenty to 
one hundred feet. The lanes were very tantalizing ; they seemed to be 
within a radius of five miles, but the islands were from thirty to forty 
miles off, and from that five miles radius to them, the ice was as close 
and compact as ever. On the 31st, estimating the distance to be but 
fifteen or twenty miles. Engineer Melville, in company with Dunbar 
and Nindemann, and three other seamen, set out from the ship with a 
fifteen-dog team to visit this second island. They landed on it June 3, 
and took possession for the United States, naming it Henrietta — 
the name of a sister of Mr. Bennett ; a cairn was built and a record 
placed within it, and a limited examination made of twelve hours. It 
was found to be a desolate rock, surrounded by a snow cap which feeds 
several glaciers on its east face. Within the inaccessible cliffs, nesting 
dovekies were the only signs of life. To reach the land, the party left 
their boat and supplies, and carrying only one day's provisions and their 
instruments went through the frightful ice mass at the risk of life, drag- 
ging the dogs, which through fear, refused to follow their human 
leaders. Mr. Dunbar returned badly affected by snow-blindness; Chipp, 
Newcomb, Dunbar, and Alexai were now on the sick list, on which 
Surgeon Ambler had kept DeLong also for several days, in consequence 
of a severe wound in his head received incidentally from a fan of the 
windmill. A general order was made out giving the names and positions 
of the two islands, Jeannette Island, lat. 76° 47', long., E. 158° b&^ ap- 
proximate; Henrietta Island, lat. 77° 8', long., E. 157° 43'. DeLong wrote: 



THE FLOE OPENS. 397 

" Thank God, we have at last landed upon a newl3^-discovered part of 
this earth, and a perilous journey (Melville's) has been accomplished 
without disaster. It was a great risk, but it has resulted in some 
advantage." 

THE CRUSH AT LAST, JUNE 13, 1881. 

These discoveries were, however, to be the only fruits of the long 
weary months ; sad forecasts of a ship to be crushed within the coming 
week. On the very day last named, the ice around her was broken 
down in immense masses, the whole pack being alive, and had the ship 
been within one of the fast-closing leads she would have been ground 
to powder. Embedded in a small island of ice, she was as yet protected 
from the direct crushing on her sides, but felt a continual hammering 
and thumping of the ice under her bottom. 

On the 12th, Sunday, at midnight, in a few moments' time, she was set 
free by the split of the floe on a line with her keel, and suddenly right- 
ing, started all hands from their beds to the deck. By. 9 A. M. the ice 
had commenced coming in on her side ; a heavy floe was hauled ahead 
into a hole where it was supposed the ice coming together would impinge 
on itself instead of on the ship. The pressure was very heavy, and gave 
forth a hissing, crunching sound, and at 3.40 P. M. the ice was reported 
coming through the starboard coal bunkers. The ship was heeling more 
than 20° to starboard. At four o'clock she was lying perfectly quiet, but 
her bows were thrown up so high in the air, that looking down through 
the water the injury to her forefoot made Jan. 19, 1880, could be seen. 
Melville went on the floe to take her photograph, but on returning to 
the ship heard the order to prepare to leave the vessel by getting out 
the chronometers, rifles, ammunition, and other articles to the floe. Lieu- 
tenant Chipp was quite sick in bed, but was notified ; Captain DeLong 
"was everywhere, seeing that all things went on smoothly and quietly, 
without the least haste or consternation among the crew; he came 
about the deck in the same manner as though we were in no danger 
whatever, and tried to have the officers and men feel as collected as he 
was." There was ample time for all persons to get out their personal 
effects, but to get a barrel of lime-juice, so necessary to prevent scurvy 



398 AMERICAN EXPLORATIOKS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

on their inarch, Seaman Starr waded into the forward store-room at the 
risk of his life. 

When the order was given for all hands to leave the ship at about 
eleven at night, her water-ways had been broken in, the iron work 
around the smoke-pipe buckled up, the rivets sheared off, and the 
smoke-stack left supported only by the guys. Three boats were low- 
ered, the first and the second cutter, and the first whale-boat ; and the 
ship's party of thirty-three made their camp, on the floe in six tents, 
but within an hour were compelled to move still further from its edge 
by the breaking up of the floe in their camp. 

Lieutenant Danenhower, in his interesting "Narrative of the Jean- 
nette," from which much that follows is derived, says that soon after 
the watch was set and the order given to turn in, when they were 
just gettiug into their sleeping-bags, the ice cracked immediately under 
the Captain's tent, and Erickson would have gone into the water, but 
for the Mackintosh blanket in which he with others was lying, the 
weight of his companions on each side keeping the middle of it from 
falling through. After about two hours' work the stores and three 
boats were shifted to another floe piece, and the party again turned in, 
about four hundred yards from where the ship was going down in lat. 
77° 14' 57" N., long. 154° 58' 45'' E. 

At 4 A.M., June 13, the cry of the watch was heard, "There she 
goes ; hurry up and look, the last sight you will have of the old ' Jean- 
nette ' ! " While the ice had held together, it had held her broken 
timbers. When it opened — with her colors flying at the masthead — 
she sank in thirty-eight fathoms of water, stripping her yards upwards 
as she passed through the floe. At 3 A.M., her smoke-pipe top was 
nearly awash ; the main topmast first fell by the board to starboard, 
then the fore topmast, and last of all the mainmast. The ship before 
sinking had heeled to starboard about 30°, and the entire starboard side 
of the spar deck was submerged, the rail being under water, and the 
water line reached to the hatch-coamings before the ship had been 
abandoned. The next morning, a visit to the place where she was last 
seen showed nothing more than a signal chest and a cabin chair with 
some smaller articles afloat. 



SUPPLIES FOR A JOURNEY. 399 



THE RETREAT SOUTHWARD. 



June 16, DeLong called all hands and read an order that the start 
southward would begin at 6 p.m. on the following day, the march to be 
in the night to avoid snow-blindness from the intense light; dinner to 
be at midnight, supper at 6 a.m., to be followed by sleep. The delay 
had been made on the recommendation of Surgeon Ambler that the sick 
and disabled might recruit before commencing their toilsome journey. 
Several of the ship's company were suffering from lead poison, induced 
by the action of the acid on the inner coating of the tins containing 
canned goods, a fact which reminds one of the condition of the cans 
found on Beechey Island by the first searching parties of the Franklin 
Relief Expeditions, the empty cans there showing by their bulg^ forms 
the effect of the fermentation of the fruit within. In the case of the 
" Jeannette," the poisoning from tomato cans had caused severe cramps; 
eight of the party being on the sick list. 

Although at the fearful distance of three hundred and fifty miles 
from the Siberian coast, with the prospect of the most toilsome of 
marches over hummocks, and all the uncertainties of a landing and the 
subsequent journeyings which must be made of over fifteen hundred 
miles to Yakoutsk, or six thousand five hundred to St. Petersburg, 
officers and men accepted their new conditions in the same spirit of 
fortitude and hope. Their dependence was upon the amount of pro- 
visions and clothing saved, their boats, sleds, teams, and their own 
energy. They had nearly five thousand pounds of American pemmican 
in canisters of forty-five pounds weight each, about fifteen hundred 
pounds of other canned provisions, and fifteen hundred pounds of 
bread ; with a full supply of ammunition for game, two dingys beside 
the three boats named, and in all, nine sleds. ^ 

Before breaking camp, DeLong prepared and carefully sewed up in 
a piece of black rubber placed within an empty boat breaker, a record 
reciting the facts of the abandonment of the " Jeannette " after the dis- 
covery of the two islands named, and the crushing of the ship, and of 
the start southward in the hope, with God's blessing, to reach the new 
Siberian Islands, and from thence to make a way by boats for the coasts 



400 AlVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of Siberia. The closing paragraphs of the record spoke of the ice as of 
the same character with that encountered by Captain Nares, of the prev- 
alence of the southeast winds, and of there being no currents not 
caused by the prevailing wind at the time. The month was a cold 
one, and he was inclined to think it would be a cold summer. 

The order of march was at first to advance the first cutter to a point 
established by Ice-Pilot Dunbar, and then take forward one by one the 
other two boats and provision sleds. Each officer and man was provided 
with a harness, fashioned to go across the chest and one shoulder, and 
attached to the sled by a lanyard ; the snow was knee-deep, the road 
very rough and full of fissures over which the boats were jumped or 
ferried, while the sleds were dragged over large hummocks. The first 
mile and a half was made in three hours, an unpromising forecast. Lieu- 
tenant Chipp, who had urged his being put on duty, fainted, and Lee, 
the machinist, and Lauterbach, had been suffering agony with cramps. 
A halt of two days was necessary to repair damages, when a progress 
was again made of about a mile or a mile and a half a day over the 
rough and moving floe. The men had to go over the road thirteen 
times — seven times with loads and six times empty-handed — thus 
making twenty-six miles to make an advance of only two. Twenty- 
one men had to do most of the work for the thirty-three. At the end 
of the first week the Captain found by observation, that the drift had 
more than neutralized the way covered by the advance ; that, in fact, 
he had lost twenty-seven miles by the drift to the northwest in excess 
of the march to the South ! This, of course, was kept a profound 
secret. In the latter part of June the snow all melted and travelling 
was better, but the men had to wade through pools of thaw-water and 
their feet were constantly wet. The number of times passed over the 
ground was reduced to seven, and the advance facilitated. 



DISCOVERY OF BENNETT ISLAND. 

July 11, a heavy water sky was seen to the south and southeast, 
and the experienced ice-pilot expressed his opinion that such clouds 
did not hang over ice. Climbing to the top of a hummock twenty feet 



BENNETT ISLAND. 401 

above the water level, DeLong says that he saw a large expanse of 
water and unmistakable land ; and thought that he might be at the 
margin of the ice-field leading him to open water and thence to the 
Siberian coast. At 6.30 A.M., he camped on an ice island about five 
hundred yards in diameter with no encouraging outlook, the southwest 
horizon foggy and the land and water disappearing. The oitmost dis- 
tance made toward the island was but two miles, and from this time 
the progress was very slow, but it was a steady ice drift to the north- 
east, and on the 28th a landing was made on the new discovery. The 
island was so steep that a footing was had with difficulty, yet at 7 p.m. 
everybody was on shore, the silk flag was unfurled, and possession taken 
in the name of the President of the United States. The south cape 
was named Cape Emma, lat. 76° 38" N., long. 148° 20" E. 

- The surgeon. Dr. Ambler, says of Bennett Island: "It is certainly 
of volcanic origin. It is composed of trap-rock, a species of feldspathic 
rock, igneous rock with silica caught up in it in masses ; trap-rock with 
globules of silica; trap-rock containing globules, which rock being 
broken shows the globules of the darker color sticking in the matrix, 
while the portion of the mass knocked off will show a complete mould 
or bed. The globules are about the size of a pea, receive a bright 
polish from the finger, and are soft enough to be cut with a knife ; silica, 
very light stone ; tufa, I think, of a light brown color, spongy in ap- 
pearance, as if blown up by gases ; lava of different colors, varying 
from a yellowish brown to a dark green ; clays almost the color of 
bricks ; debris from the sides of the cliff being disintegrated portions 
of this red, seemingly baked clay. 

"The face of the cliff. Cape Emma, is in six terraces of igneous rock, 
separated by other strata imposed, of the red clay stuff which contains 
most of the silica. The amethyst was found in a matrix of ^quartz 
imbedded in the trap rock. The stalagmite and stalactite were found 
upon breaking open a mass of trap-rock found lying on the beach, and 
could easily be removed by the finger. The stratification is horizontal ; 
fossils seen. There is also a white stone with very much the appear- 
ance of gypsum. There are two varieties, one occurring in tabular 
masses, with glistening sides when held in the light, and the other of a 



402 AIMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

dull, opaque white, and in rounded masses which show the action of 
water. Both varieties can be cut with a knife, and form an opaque 
white powder, which effervesces upon applying nitric and acetic 
acids." 

The ship's company now encamped for several days, needing rest 
and change of diet. Their first surfeit on the numerous birds readily 
knocked down brought some sickness, compelling a return to pem- 
mican. Dunbar and the two Indians explored the east side of the 
island, finding there several grassy valleys ; Lieutenant Chipp and Mr. 
Collins explored the south and west sides ; a box of geological speci- 
mens was obtained and brought home by Lieutenant Danenhower. Dr. 
Ambler obtained amethysts, opals, and petrifactions ; tidal observations 
were made, the greatest rise and fall noted being about three feet. The 
party left the island August 6, and made fair progress until the 20th, 
when, after drifting along the north coast of Thadeoffsky Island (or 
Thaddeus Island), they were imprisoned nearly ten days, after which 
they found themselves in navigable water, and rounded the so nth point 
of the island. 

TECE BOATS. 

The three boats and their several occupants were, the first cutter, 
holding Captain DeLong, Surgeon Ambler, Mr. Collins, and eleven of 
the crew, including Ah Sam, the cook, and the Indian, Alexai; the 
second cutter, with Lieutenant Chipp, Ice-Pilot Dunbar, and six of the 
crew ; and the whale-boat. Engineer Melville commanding. Lieutenant 
Danenhower (invalid), and eight of the crew, including the Chinese 
steward, and the Indian, Aneguin. The dimensions of the second 
cutter were much less than those of either of the other two boats, her 
extreme length being but sixteen feet three inches, while that of the 
first cutter was twenty feet four inches, and of the whale-boat, twenty- 
five feet four inches. Chipp's cutter was also a very bad sea-boat, and 
had not sufficient carrying capacity for a full allowance of provisions. 
The first cutter had the greatest carrying capacity of the three, was 
fitted with mast and one shifting lug sail, pulled six oars, and was an 
excellent sea-boat. The depth of the first cutter and of the whale- 



THE SEPAKATION. 403 

boat from top of gunwale to top of keel was two feet two inches ; that 
of the second cutter, two feet six inches. The whale-boat was one of 
the very best fastened of boats ; each was clinker-built, copper-fastened, 
inside liiung. 

The draught of the boats when loaded (from twenty-four to twenty- 
eight inches), was caused by the heavy oak keel pieces put upon them 
to strengthen them for hauling over the ice. Fitted with weather 
cloths, at the date of September 11, their free boards were about twelve 
inches above water. The whale-boat had one prismatic compass, and 
a pocket chronometer ; the second cutter had the same, and a Bow- 
ditch Navigator; and the first cutter a box and a pocket chronometer, 
a comparing watch, and a pair of binoculars. Lieutenant Chipp also 
had a pair. 

FIEST LANDING. — NEW SIBERIAN ISLANDS. 

On the 10th, the land of the Asiatic coast was in sight, estimated to 
be twenty miles westward ; and on the 11th, a landing was made and 
parties sent out hunting. An old deserted hut was found, and human 
footprints made by a civilized boot. Lieutenant Chipp and some of 
his sailors visited Melville's camp, and reported that they had had a 
very rough experience. 

September 12, the three boats left Semenovski Island on which 
the party had camped, at about 8 A.M., and remained in company 
till noon, dining together. A gale was commencing from the north- 
east, which by 7 p.m, forced all hands in the whale-boat to be pumping 
or baling out water. The course was south-southwest, true. Captain 
DeLong was about five hundred yards distant from Melville, and Chipp 
seven hundred from DeLong. The gale increasing, both of these last 
were lost sight of by the whale-boat ; the first cutter, destined to land 
her party and make the sad experience of their intense suffering to 
death by cold and starvation ; the second cutter to leave no record, 
but the blank to be filled by the reasonable supposition of her being 
swamped by the sea ; and the whale-boat to be saved only by the suc- 
cessful use of a drag or sea-anchor, and the incessant baling by almost 
exhausted men. 




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STEERING BY THE SUN AND MOON. 405 

THE WHALE-BOAT. 

The course of the party in this boat will be first traced. Engineer 
Melville was in command, but relied on the professional ability of 
Lieutenant Danenhower, still on the sick list. The pocket prismatic 
compass, useful on shore where it could be levelled and the peedle come 
to rest, was now unavailable. Steering was by the sun or the moon. 
Lieutenant Danenhower carried the watch and chart, and could shape 
the course of the boat by the bearings of the sun at this equinoctial 
period. September 15, one of the eastern mouths of the Lena was 
entered, and, by the assistance of a Tungus pilot, the party pushed 
up the river, and on the 26th reached a small village, in which 
lived a Siberian exile, Kopelloff, who proved very useful in opening 
the way to intercourse by teaching the Lieutenant Russian phrases. 
They were detained at this place waiting for the growth of the ice for 
sledding, and while another Russian exile, Koosmah Gerrymahoff, with 
the chief of the village, went forward to Bulun to inform the Russian 
authorities of their arrival. 

On the 17th of October, Danenhower began his search with a dog 
team, to explore the coasts for the missing boats, but was unable, 
from the condition of the ice, to proceed far in any direction, and 
returned without results. The wide river, or rather bay, which, sep- 
arated Gemovialocke from the main land, was sometimes covered with, 
young ice, too thick for the passage of boats, and too thin for the 
passage of sledges, and at times was filled with floating masses of old 
ice ; while their ignorance of the language left them unable to express 
their wants, or to discover the resources of the vicinity in respect to 
reindeer or dog teams. 

On the 29th the two messengers returned, bringing the news that 
on their way back they had met natives with deer-sleds, who had Mn- 
demann and Noros, of DeLong's party, conducting them to Bulun. 
The two seamen had written a note, stating that the captain's party 
were starving, and needed immediate assistance. Koosmah communi- 
cated this note to Engineer Melville, who immediately started with a 
native and dog team, to find the men, learn the position of the Cap- 



406 AiVlEIlICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

tain's party, and carry food to them. Dnnenhower was ordered to take 
charge of the party, and get them as soon as possible to Bulun. 
November 1, the Bulun commandant brought to him a good supply of 
bread, deer-meat, and tea, and a document addressed by Noros and 
Nindemann to the American minister at St. Petersburg; this the 
Lieutenant forwarded by Seaman Bartlett to Melville, and as soon as 
possible himseK started forward, overtaking Melville at the first deer 
station. He received from him orders to go forward to Yakutsk, 
which he reached December 17, 1881, having travelled by deer-sled 
nine hundred versts (six hundred miles) to Verchoiansk, and thence, 
by means of deer, oxen, and horses, the remaining nine hundred and 
sixty versts. 

At Yakutsk Melville received the first dispatch from the Secretary 
of the Navy, ordering him to send the sick and frozen to a milder 
climate ; Lieutenant Danenhower's party went forward, therefore, to 
Irkoutsk. Here, being advised by the Russian oculist that his right 
eye would be well in a few days, he telegraphed to the Department, 
through the American Legation at St. Petersburg, asking permission 
to hire a steamer, and search for Lieutenant Chipp's party during the 
spring and summer ; also for two line officers to assist. He re- 
ceived a reply through the Legation that two officers would be sent. 
The entire party of men of which he had charge volunteered to remain 
for the search, six of them being in excellent condition; February 5, 
however, he received further orders from the Navy Department that, 
owing to his condition of health, the order to remain and search for 
survivors of the " Jeannette " was revoked. The oculist allowing him 
to start on the 13th of March, the Lieutenant went forward with his 
men, except Seaman Noros, whom he had been ordered by a subse- 
quent telegram to permit to accompany Mr. J. P. Jackson, a special 
messenger sent out by Mr. Bennett to renew search on the Lena delta. 

March 17, Lieutenant Danenhower received at Nischnendinsk, a 
telegram from Lieutenant G. B. Harber, U. S. N., who had been sent 
out by the Navy Department with Master W. H. Schuetze, and after 
full conference with him, turned over to him in Avriting, all the prin- 
cipal facts and details concerning the missing parties ; also the chron- 



LAST ENTRIES IN DeLONG'S JOURNAL. 407 

ometer, sextant, and other instruments. Lieutenant Harber obtained 
permission from the Secretary to retain the enlisted healthy men to 
assist him in his search, and on the 23d Danenhower came forward to 
St. Petersburg which he reached May 1, having been detained on the 
road by a light attack of small-pox in the case of Tong Sing. With 
Mr. Newcomb, Cole, and the Chinese, he arrived in New York City, 
June 1. Cole was already mentally aifected, and early became an in- 
mate of the Government Asylum for the insane in Washington, where 
he still remains. The rest of the whale-boat crew, except the Indian, 
Aneguin, who died of small-pox in Russia, and Nindemann and Noros 
of Captain DeLong's party, arrived in the United States previous to the 
12th of February, 1882. 

delong's boat. 

The sad history which follows is derived from the records of the 
Commander up to his last feeble entries of October 30, and from the 
reports of Engineer Melville and Lieutenant Danenhower, their testi- 
mony before the Naval Court of Inquiry, and that of the seamen Nin- 
demann, Noros, and Bartlett ; the first two of these three being the 
only ones saved from this boat. 

The Captain's brief journals of September, 1881, record: "At 9 p.m. 
Sept. 12, lost sight of whale-boat ahead ; at 10 P. M. lost sight of 
second cutter astern ; wind freshening to a gale. Step of mast carried 
away ; lowered sail and rode to sea anchor ; very heavy sea, and hard 
squalls. Barometer falling rapidly. 

" 13th, very heavy northeast gale. ... At 8 p. M. set a jury sail made 
of a sled cover, and kept the boat away to the westward before the sea ; 
— 17th, grounded at a few hundred yards, landed at 8 p.m. ; dark and 
snow storm, but Collins had a good fire going; at 10.20 had landed 
everything, except boat oars, mast, sled, and alcohol breakers ; — 18th, 
had fires going all the time to dry our clothes, we must look our situa- 
tion in the face, and prepare to walk to a settlement. 

"September 19, ordered preparations to be made for leaving this 
place, and as a beginning, all sleeping bags are to be left behind. Left 
in instrument box a record portions of which read thus : — 



408 A]VIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

''Lena Delta, Sept. 19, 1881. 
" Landed here on the evening of the 17th, and will proceed this 
afternoon to try and reach, with God's help, a settlement, the nearest 
of which I believe is ninety-five miles distant. We are all well, have 
four days' provisions, arms and ammunition, and are carrying with us 
only ship's books and papers, with blankets, tents, and some medicines, 
therefore, our chances of getting through seem good. ... At 2.45 
went ahead, and at 4.30 stopped and camped. Loads too heavy — 
men used up — Lee groaning and complaining, Erickson, Boyd, and 
Sam, hobbling. Three rests of fifteen minutes each of no use. Road 
bad. Breaking through thin crust ; occasionally up to the knees. 
Sent Nindemann back with Alexai and Dressier to deposit log-books. 

. . . Every one of us seems to have lost all feeling in his toes, and 
some of us even half way up the feet. That terrible week in the boat 
has done us great injury ; opened our last can of pemmican, and so cut 
it that it must suffice for four days' food, then we are at the end of our 
provisions and must eat the dog (the last of the forty) unless Provi- 
dence sends something in our way. When the dog is eaten ? I 

was much impressed and derive great encouragement from an accident of 
last Sunday. Our Bible got soaking wet, and I had to read the Epistle 
and Gospel from my prayer-book. According to my rough calculation 
it must have been the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, and the Gospel 
contained some promises which seemed peculiarly adapted to our con- 
dition. (The passage is in Matthew v. 24). 

" September 21, at 3.30 came to a bend in the river making south, 
and to our surprise two huts, one seemingly new. At 9 P.M. a knock 
outside the hut was heard and Alexai said, ' Captain, we have got two 
reindeer,' and in he came bearing a hind quarter of meat. September 
24, commenced preparations for departure from the hut at seven o'clock. 

... At 10 p. M. made a rough bed of a few logs ! wrapped our blankets 
around us and sought a sleep that did not come ; 27th, made tea at 
daylight, and at 5.05 had our breakfast — four-fourteenths of a pound of 
pemmican. ... At 9.45 five men arrived in camp, bringing a fine buck. 
Saved again ! ! September 30, one hundred and tenth day from leaving 
the ship, Erickson is no better, and it is a foregone conclusion that he 



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410 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

must lose four of the toes of his right foot, and one of his left. The 
doctor commenced slicing away the flesh after breakfast, fortunately 
without pain to the patient, for the forward part of the foot is dead : 
but it was a heart-rending sight to me, the cutting awa}' of bones and 
flesh of a man whom I hoped to return sound and whole to his friends. 
October 1, the doctor resumed the cutting of poor Erickson's toes this 
morning, only one toe left now. And where are we ? I think at the 
beginning of the Lena River at last. My chart is simply useless. Left 
a record in the hut that we are proceeding to cross to the west side to 
reach some settlement on the Lena River. October 3, nothing remains 
but the dog. I therefore ordered him killed and dressed by Iverson, 
and soon after a kind of stew made of such parts as could not be carried, 
of which everybody, except the doctor and myself, eagerly partook, to 
us it was a nauseating mess. . . . Erickson soon became delirious, and 
his talking was a horrible accompaniment to the wretchedness of our 
surroundings. During the night got his gloves off; his hands were 
frozen. At 8 A. M. got Erickson (quite unconscious) and lashed on the 
sled under the cover of a hut, made a fire and got warm. . . . Half a 
pound of dog was fried for each one, and a cup of tea given, and that 
constituted our day's food. At 8.45 A.M., our messmate, Erickson, 
departed this life. October 6, as to burying him I cannot dig a 
grave, the ground is frozen, and I have nothing to dig with. There 
is nothing to do but to bury him in the river. Sewed him up in 
the flaps of the tent, and covered him with my flag. Got tea ready, 
and with one-half ounce alcohol, we will try to make out to bury him. 
But we are all so weak that I do not see how we are going to move. 

"At 12.40 P.M. read the burial service, and carried our departed 
shipmate's body down to the river, where, a hole having been cut in 
the ice, he was buried ; three volleys from our two Remingtons being 
fired over him as a funeral honor. 

A board was prepared with this cut on it: — 

In Memory, 
H. H. Erickson, 

Oct. 6th, 1881. 
U. S. S. Jeannette. 



delong's death. . 411 

And this will be stuck iii the river bank abreast his grave. His cloth- 
ing was divided up among his messmates. Iverson has his Bible and 
a lock of his hair. Kaack has a lock of his hair. . . . Supper, 5 P. M., 
half pound dog meat and tea. October 9, sent Nindemann and Noros 
ahead for relief; they carry their blankets, one rifle, forty pounds 
•ammunition, two ounces alcohol. . . . Under way again at 10.30, had 
for dinner one ounce of alcohol. Alexai shot three ptarmigan. Find 
canoe, lay our heads on it and go to sleep. 

"10th, eat deer-skin scraps. . . . Ahead again till eleven. At three 
halted, used up. Crawded into a hole on the bank. Nothing for supper, 
except a spoonful of glycerine. 17th, Alexai died, covered him with 
ensign, and laid him in a crib. 21st, one hundred and thirty-first day, 
Kaack was found dead at midnight. Too weak to carry the bodies out 
on the ice ; the doctor, Collins, and I carried them around the corner 
out of sight. Then my eye closed up. Sunday, October 23, one hun- 
dred and thirty-third day — everybody pretty weak — slept or rested 
all day, then managed to get enough wood in before dark. Read part 
of divine service. Suffering in our feet. No foot gear. 

"Monday, Oct. 24, one hundred and thirty-fourth day. A hard 
night. 

" Tuesday, Oct. 25, one hundred and thirty-fifth day. No record. 

"Wednesday, Oct. 26, one hundred and thirty-sixth day. No record. 

"Thursday, Oct. 27, one hundred and thirty-seventh day. Iver- 
son broke down. 

"Friday, Oct. 28, one hundred and thirty-eighth day. Iverson died 
during early morning. 

"Saturday, Oct. 29, one hundred and thirty-ninth day. Dressier 
died during the night. 

" Sunday, Oct. 30, one hundred and fortieth day. Boyd and Gortz 
died during the night. Mr. Collins dying." 

The preceding brief extracts from this saddest of all journals tell 
the story of the first cutter, excepting that of the two saved, Ninde- 
mann and Noros. The Captain, the Surgeon, and the last one of tlie 
crew must have perished almost immediately after the last one of their 
comrades. 



412 Ajsierican explorations in the ice zones. 

the journey of nindemann and noros. 

According to the testimony of Seaman Nindemann, DeLong, on the 
9th of October, had called him aside and said to him : " I think you 
have to go only about twelve miles to a settlement called Ku-mark- 
surka, and you and Noros can make it in three days, or at the longest, 
four. Do the best you can; if you find assistance come back as quick 
as possible ; and if you do not, you are as well off as we are." 

The two men started off with three cheers from their comrades, and 
a copy of the captain's chart, by which he worked. On their first day 
they killed one ptarmigan ; on the second, failing to secure a deer they 
made a supper on a boot sole soaked in water and burned to a crust, 
with &ome Arctic willow tea ; on the morning of the eleventh, they 
again started on their way South, and at 12 M. stopped to make use of 
some of the alcohol, but on finding that the bottle in their pocket 
had been broken, dined on another boot sole with Arctic willow tea, and 
supped upon some deer bones that were burned in a hut. On the 12th 
they were somewhat itiore fortunate, for on gathering some drift-wood, 
Noros looking into the hole beneath it drew out two fishes, and Ninde- 
mann caught a lemming. The day following, having nothing to eat, a 
piece of seal-skin pants was cut off, soaked in water and burned to a 
crust, and on like food they subsisted until the 20th, when they found 
in a kayak near another hut, fishes enough to keep them alive for some 
days ; they were becoming very weak by dysentery. 

On the 22d, looking through the crack of the hut in which they 
were resting, they saw a native who, on the evening of the same day, 
returned with others, and putting the two men on deer sleighs, drove 
with them until midnight to their tents, into which they took the two 
seamen and fed them. The natives, after securing a number of deer, 
carried the two further forward, and, after learning from them, by the 
assistance of a tall Russian, that they wished to be carried to Bulun, 
the most northern Russian settlement in Siberia, landed them at that 
place on the 29th. Here Noros wrote, at Nindemann's dictation, a 
letter to the American minister at St. Petersburg, informing him of the 
condition of DeLong and his party. November 3, the two men heard 



THE LOG-BOOKS FOUND. 413 

the door of their hut in Biilun open, and the voice of Engineer Melville, 
who exclaimed, "Noros, are you alive?" They gave him all the details 
from the time they had landed. The engineer made himself a chart on 
which were marked the huts they had found and their route as well as 
they could tell it, in order for his immediate arrangements to search for 
DeLong and his party. The telegram which the men had intended to be 
sent to the American Minister had been addressed by the commandant 
at Bulun to Engineer Melville, as to one far nearer than St. Petersburg. 
Both the seamen were now very sick from exhaustion and dysentery 
caused by eating decayed fish. 



MELVILLE S SEARCH. 

Engineer Melville immediately forwarded three telegrams : one to 
the Secretary of the Navy, a second to the U. S. Minister at St. 
Petersburg, and the third to Mr. J. G. Bennett at Paris. The first 
telegram, sent by Government couriers the long journey to Irkutsk, 
was received there by American Charge Hoffmann December 22, and 
by Secretary Hunt at Washington the day following. The Secretary 
immediately replied as follows : — 

"Omit no effort. Spare no expense in securing safety of men in 
second cutter. Let the sick and the frozen of those already rescued 
have every attention, and as soon as practicable have them transferred 
to milder climate. Department will supply necessary funds." 

The U. S. Charge at St. Petersburg had also telegraphed to Mel- 
ville that his dispatch to the Navy Department had been forwarded. 

After sending the dispatch, Melville pushed his search to the 
northern extremity of the Lena Delta. Leaving Burulak November 
5, Avith two dog teams, two natives, and food for ten days, he visited 
some of the huts spoken of by Nindemann and Noros, and on re- 
ceiving from some native hunters some of the records left by Caj)- 
tain DeLong, and, learning from these papers where he had left 
the log-books, chronometers, and other abandoned articles, found 
the cache which was marked by a tall flag-staff on the ocean shore, 
and secured the logs and other things. A further diligent search 



414 AlklERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of three weeks, made with great suffering and exposure, revealed, 
however, nothing of the missing party; nor had the natives heard 
of them at any of their settlements. Nindemann had expressed his 
conviction that all must have perished ; it was now matter of painful 
but irresistible conclusions. Melville could hope to do no more until 
the season opened and until full arrangements could be made for the 
necessary supplies, and for the orders to subordinates which should be 
issued by the Russian authorities. This could not be accomplished at 
Bulun. He went forward to Yakutsk, arriving there December 30. 

January 10, 1882, he sent forward the logs and papers in charge of 
Lieutenant Danenhower, and pushed his preparations for the renewed 
search under the orders from the Navy Department now received. 

March 16, accompanied by Seamen Nindemann and Bartlett, the 
latter of whom had picked up some Russian, he found the hut where 
DeLong and his comrades had slept before crossing the river; and on 
the 23d found not the living but 



THE DEAD TEN. 

Four poles lashed together and projecting out two feet from the snow- 
drift, pointed to their resting-place. The muzzle of a Remington rifle 
also stood above the snow bank eight inches, its strap hitched over the 
poles. A few hundred yards further were the three bodies of Captain 
DeLong, Surgeon Ambler, and Ah Sam, the Chinese cook. Alongside 
of DeLong was his note -book with the last feebly written lines which 
have been cited ; under the poles were the books and records with 
which the conscientious care of the commander had too heavily 
loaded himself and party. Alexai's body was searched for in vain ; • 
DeLong's Journal showed that he died in the flat boat. It is probable 
that the remains of the native were borne by the flood into the Lena. 
Erickson, as has been stated, had been buried by DeLong in the river. 

The natives with Melville were at first afraid to break the bodies 
out of the snow bank ; they were frozen to the ground, and it required 
prying with sticks of wood to get them up. The Captain's left arm 
had been seen sticking up out of the gnow. 



THE CBOSS. 



415 



Nindemann, with Bartlett, under Melville's direction took everything 
from the bodies, tying up each parcel separately in handkerchiefs found 
upon them, the only exception to the bringing away of which for their 
friends, being a bronze crucifix found upon the person of Mr. Collins, 
which, by Melville's orders, was replaced in the bosom of his shirt, to 
be buried with him. After much further digging in the snow, and 



IN MEMORY 

OF 12 OF 

THE 

OFFICERS AND 

MEN 

OF 



THE ARCTIC STEAMER "JEANNETTE/ 

WHO DIED OF STARVATION 
IN THE LENA DELTA, OCTOBER, 1881. 



LIEUTENANT 

G. W. DeLONG. 

Dr. J. M. AMBLER. 

J. J. COLLINS. 

W. LEE. 

A. GORTZ. 

A. DRESSLER. 

H. H. ERICKSON. 

G. W. BOYD. 

N. IVERSON. 

H. H. KAACK. 

ALEXAI. 

AH SAM. 



finding a number of other small articles, Melville had all the bodies 
carried over the mountain to the southward of Mat-Vai, where, on a 
high bluff, a tomb had been prepared, and a box to hold the bodies. 
They were arrange^ side by side, DeLong, Ambler, Collins, and the 
others in regular rotation, as their names were cut on a vertical portion 
of a cross placed over the tomb. 

The tomb itself was covered with seven-inch plank its whole 
length, and the cross shored with diagonal braces to the edge of the 
box, a regular pyramid being built over the tomb, which was covered 



416 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

with rough stones, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds 
at the base, with small pieces at the top and sides. The cross arm was 
hoisted into its place, and keyed by Nindemann with a large wooden 
key to keep it in place. The cross was twenty-two feet high, the arm 
twelve feet in length. Upon it was the inscription shown on the pre- 
ceding page. 

Arrangements were subsequently made at Yakutsk to have the 
entire cairn covered with a deep layer of earth, to prevent the possi- 
bility of the sun thawing the bodies therein. General Tchernaieff also 
caused a Russian inscription to be prepared, to be placed on the tomb, 
and directed that every care should be taken to preserve the tomb and 
the monument in good condition. " Standing as they do on an emi- 
nence, they are conspicuous objects, and may be seen at a distance of 
twenty miles." (^Mr, Newcomh''s Narrative.^ 



THE SEARCH FOR CHIPP. 

During the first week of April, Engineer Melville's party, having 
completed the burial of the bodies, were put upon the search for the 
second cutter, under the command of Lieutenant Chipp. Nindemann 
and Bartlett were sent to Cape Barkin, from which point one of them 
examined the sea-coast of the Delta southward as far as Jamavaeloch, 
working also into the mouths of the rivers; the other followed the 
north coast of Siberia to the river Osoktok, along which DeLong and 
his party came. Their orders were executed in the most thorough 
manner, but no trace of the second cutter was found. The first cutter 
was found where she had been abandoned in the ice of the ocean, filled 
with water, frozen in, and badly stove. 

Melville searched the coast line west to the deserted village of 
Chancer, thence across the peninsula, down the river Alanack to the 
ocean ; along the coast, in and out of all the bays to the northwest 
point of the Delta, and thence along the north coast ; completing the 
coast-wise search for the second cutter, by a still further search to the 
river Jana. 



418 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The sledging season was now at an end. He was detained on the 
mountains by the melting of the snows, but reached Yakutsk June 8. 
Hearing here that Lieutenant Harber had found it impossible to char- 
ter at fair rates the expected steamer for the Lena, and was making 
other preparations for his summer search, but prevented from meeting 
him, Melville sent Bartlett to report for duty under the Lieutenant, 
and sent with him a track chart of the search already made on the 
Delta. From Irkutsk Melville began his home journey with Ninde- 
mann and Noros, arriving in New York September 13, 1882. 



FURTHER SEARCH. 

Lieutenant Harber and Lieutenant Schuetze had arrived in St. 
Petersburg February 20. Here they received special assistance from 
General Ignatieff, the Governor-General of Siberia, and United States 
Charge Hoffman. On arriving at Nijni Ujinsk, on the way to Irkutsk, 
and meeting Avith Lieutenant Danenhower's home party, they received, 
by permission of the Secretary of the Navy, as volunteers in the 
further search for Chipp, Seamen Leach, Wilson, Mansen, Lauder- 
Ijack, and the Indian, Aneguin. Noros had before this gone back 
^th Mr. Jackson, special agent sent out by Mr. Bennett from. 
Paris. Harber during the month of May went down the river to 
Viska in a chartered steamer, but found the vessel unfit for the object 
in view, and consequently secured others by reconstructing a pur- 
chased boat and building two dories. June 11 he was prepared to 
search the Delta. 

In his report of November 29, 1882, Secretary Chandler states that 
Harber and Schuetze had prosecuted the search with energy, but had 
not succeeded in getting any intelligence of Lieutenant Chipp's party. 

PREPARING TO BRING THE BODIES HOME. 

The latest information received from Russia nearly at the date of 
this writing, is furnished in the following letters — an unhappy closing 
of the record of the voyage of the " Jeannette." It will be seen from 



harbek's journey. 419 

liieu tenant Harber's first letter that no fond hopes of recognition of the 
lost ones can be now indulged, although such hopes were justly con- 
ceived perhaps in the breasts of the bereaved by the conditions of the 
climate and the careful entombment secured by Engineer Melville. 

^ "Irkutsk, Siberia, June 23, 1883. 

"Hon. W. E. Chandlek, Secretary of the Navy^ Washington^ D. C. . 

" Sir, — I have the honor to report as follows concerning the removal 
of the bodies of Lieutenant-Commanding DeLong and party. 

" The requisite permission to remove these bodies was not received 
at Yakutsk until January 25, and on the 26th I started north with Mr. 
Schuetze and a Cossack interpreter. Before starting we were distinctly 
informed that we could have no assistance from the Government, and 
in fact throughout the journey to Mat-Vai and return we received 
none. 

" We encountered many difficulties, but they did not prove serious ; 
merely delayed us a few days. 

" The natives were glad to furnish both reindeer and dogs, and for 
their use charged little more than the Government rates. 

" In travelling four thousand versts (two thousand six hundred and 
sixty-seven miles) with deer, but two animals died, apparently from 
exhaustion, and these were paid for ; no dogs were in any way injured. 
I mention this to answer the objections to the journey made by the 
authorities before the permission was granted. 

" We reached Bulun February 20, and Beemoviolach February 22. 
We were detained here four days by a severe gale, but at its close at 
once proceeded to Mat-Vai, reaching it March 1. On the 2d we went 
to the tomb, removed the bodies, rebuilt the tomb, and, returning to 
Mat-Vai, prepared for the return trip. ^ 

"Learning from the telegrams of the Department, through our 
minister at St. Petersburg, that the caskets now at Orenburg were not 
to be forwarded, and being informed by the Governor that the caskets 
were a necessity, whether the bodies were to be transported in winter 
or in summer, I made arrangements with the Government physician 
for properly preserving the bodies in their frozen condition during the 



4:10 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

summer months, and leaving Mr. Schuetze to see these arrange- 
ments carried out, I set out for Irkutsk to obtain materials for the 
caskets. 

"I was told in Yakutsk that the law required sheet-lead for the 
lining, and hence expected to go to Russia for this material. However, 
I found in this city sheets of pure tin, and obtained permission of the 
Governor to use this material for the temporary caskets, the bodies to 
be transferred to the ones in Orenburg on our arrival. All necessary 
articles were forwarded when the river broke up last March. As soon 
as the road opens in November, I will proceed home with the bodies. 
If no unforeseen difficulties appear, I should reach" Orenburg between 
January 30 and February 1, 1884. The bodies are much decayed, and 
recognition impossible. 

"Before Ensign Hunt and party left me, I obtained from James 
Bar tie tt, fireman, a description of each body, its position, dress, etc., 
as it was when last seen. This description was found to be so exact 
that no difficulty or doubt occurred iii their identification, and each 
was carefully marked as it came from the tomb. ' 

" There will be some difficulty in straightening the limbs in conse- 
quence of the amount of decay which occurred last summer, but the 
surgeon tells me it can be done. 

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

(Signed) " Giles B. Harder, 

" U. jS. Navyr 

Lieutenant Harber's second letter, received at Washington Nov. 
14, 1883, reads : — 

"Yakutsk, Aug. 24, 1883. 
" Ho:n". Wm. E. Chandler, Secretary of the Navy : 

" Sir, — I have the honor to inform the Department that after fur- 
nishing materials for temporary caskets, and drawing ten thousand 
rubles from our Minister at St. Petersburg, I have returned to Yakutsk. 
I find that after our departure for Kitach last October, a pocket-knife 
marked 'J. Q. A. Zeigler,' and a spoon, were found on the route taken 
by DeLong, and brought to the Russian Meteorological Station near 



THE TEN AT IIIKUTSK. 421 

Kitach, and by Lieutenant Gurgens forwarded to Governor Tchernaieff. 
They will be brought home. It is evident they belonged to DeLong's 
party. 

" Aneguin having died of a contagious disease, his body of course can- 
not be brought home. On our way north, I stopped at Kernisok, and 
Tisited his grave, and left instructions to have it suitably marked in 
accordance with a sketch which I have forwarded from this place. The 
Assistant Ipravnik kindly offered to see my instructions carried out. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"Giles B. Habber." 

The letter which follows, written by an " occasional" correspondent " 
of the Neiv York Tjnbime (probably by one of Lieutenant Harber's 
party) furnishes material of much interest, and explains some points 
not embraced in the brief official letters which have been quoted. 

" St. Peteesbukg, Nov. 10. 

"A year ago last February Lieutenant Giles B. Harber and Lieutenant W. H. 
Schuetze, of the United States Navy, left this city on their way to the Lena Delta to 
search for Lieutenant Chipp and the other missing men of the " Jeannette." About 
the middle of this month, the weather permitting, they will leave Yakutsk on their 
long journey homeward Avith the remains of Lieutenant-Commander George W. 
DeLong, captain of the 'Jeannette,^ and the ten men who died with him at the 
mouth of the Lena in 1881. 

A LONG DELAY IN SECURING COFFINS. 

"When Lieutenant Harber returned to Yakutsk on Xov. 29, 1882, from the Lena 
Delta, without any news of the missing men, he found awaiting him orders to take 
home the remains of DeLong and his companions. The bodies could not be removed 
from the tomb Chief Engineer Melville built — near IMat Vai — without permission 
from the Russian ISIinister of the Interior, and this was" not received by Mr. Harber 
imtil Jan. 25. 1883. While waiting nearly two months for authority to remove the 
bodies he made all preparations to start northward again witliout delay, and on 
January 2G. he and Mr. Schuetze left Yakutsk for the Delta. They accomplished 
their task successfully and returned to Yakutsk on March 29, only to discover that 
they must remain almost a year longer in Siberia. The report current at the time 
was that the United States Government had instructed them to take the bodies home 
in the winter season, so that they might be transported frozen. If such an order was 
given, it does not appear to have been necessary, for with suitable coffins the bodies 
could have been brought to Russia without 'Iclay. Such coffins, however, were not 



422 AMEBICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

to be had in Yakutsk, and for some reason the metallic ones sent from the United 
States had not been forwarded to that city. These coffins not being in Yakutsk, a 
large portion of the delay since last March has been unavoidable. When Mr. Harber 
found that the Russian law would not permit the removal of the bodies at any season 
of the year except in air-tight coffins, and that these could not be obtained in 
Yakutsk, he at once journeyed to Irkutsk, to obtain permission from the Governor- 
General to use pure tin or some other suitable material as a lining to ordinary 
coffins. In this way he hoped to make coffins that would come within the pro- 
visions of the law and serve until the bodies could be transferred to the metallic ones 
sent from New York. But it was not an easy matter to obtain permission to do this, 
and it was not until late in July that he was able to leave Irkutsk for Yakutsk, with 
authority to make the temporary coffins, and the necessary materials. The coffins 
were comi)leted in good time, but he was compelled to wait a little while longer for 
the Lena to freeze over before he could start on the homeward journey. It is to be 
hoped that neither man nor weather will throw any further obstacles in his way, and 
that he will soon be able to leave Yakutsk. If he is favored with good weather and 
has reasonable aid in his journey, he will reach New York some time in February. 

A MID-WINTER TRIP TO THE LENA DELTA. 

** When Lieutenant Harber received permission to remove the bodies of DeLong 
and his men from the tomb, he started, as has been stated above, immediately for 
the Lena Delta. He left Yakutsk with Mr. Schuetze and a Cossack, taking with him 
a train of six sleds, three of which were loaded with provisions, materials for con- 
structing new sleds, and felt in which to wrap the bodies. He started northward a 
year and five days after Chief Engineer Melville began his journey to search for 
DeLong. Last year the Government had the entire road prepared for Mr. Melville, 
deer being held for him at every station, and after leaving Yerchoyansk he was 
fortunate enough to have the personal assistance of the Ispravnik. The Government 
gave Melville all the assistance possible, because he was upon an errand of mercy. 
But the removal of the bodies was a different matter, and in such a case the local 
officials had no authority to lend a helping hand. Mr. Harber was permitted to 
make the journey, but he had to depend entirely upon his own resources. 

"In going from Yakutsk to the mouth of the Lena in the winter, the valley of 
that river is not followed. A shorter and better route is obtained by going north- 
ward across the Aldan River, over the Yerchoyansk Mountains and then down the 
valley of the Jana River, to the eastward of the Lena. Mr. Harber followed the 
same route that Melville took, except that he was obliged to travel much further, 
going to the mouth of the Omalvi and then to Bulun, while the last four hundred 
versts of Melville's journey were over the direct road to Bulun. Melville, with the 
assistance of the Government, made the northward journey in twelve working days ; 
Harber, without the aid of the Government, made it in twenty-three days. Harber's 
entire journey occupied sixty and one-half working days, and when he returned to 
Yakutsk on March 29, the officials were surprised at the good time made and the 
euccessful transportation of the bodies. 



THE DEER-TRAIN. 423 



DRIVEN FROM THE PASS BY AN ARCTIC GALE. 

" This road is probably the steepest travelled one known, and its passage is 
rendered more difficult by the frequent high winds. On approaching the pass, Lieu- 
tenant Harbers party had line weather, the day being clear and calm, and the ther- 
mometer at — 80^ F. As the train drew nearer to the pass, however, a light air was 
felt. The deer-drivers did not appear to like it, but the train moved on. The wind 
grew stronger gradually as the train moved on, and when the party emerged from 
the woods near the foot of the steepest part of the pass it was met by a gale from the 
north. The wind was not only strong, but it was intensely cold. The deer could 
not foce it,, and the party was compelled to turn back and travel nearly all night to 
the nearest shelter, a powarni, or cooking-house, on the south side of the mountains. 
About the middle of the following day there were signs that the wind would change 
to the south, and the deer were at once started as quickly as possible for the pass 
which was reached in good season. It took the train from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. to cross 
the ridge, the wind blowing a moderate gale from the south. 

" When Verchoyansk, on the Jana, was reached, a contract was made with a 
deer-owner for the transportation of the bodies, and after consultation it was decided 
not to go direct to Bulun, but to the mouth of the Omalvi and then across the Bor- 
chaia Bay to Gemovialocke Island (at the mouth of the southeastern branch of the 
Lena), where dogs for travelling in the Delta were to be obtained. When the party 
reached Borchaia Bay, it found that the continued high Avinds had blown the snow 
from the ice. The deer could not travel over the uncovered ice, and their owner 
refused to follow the shore of the bay and save the time it would take to go south- 
eastward to Bulun. To Bulun the train was driven, and then to Kumaksurk, Bukoff, 
and Gemovialocke. When the latter place was reached the party was met by a povrga. 
In fifteen minutes, though overhead the sky was beautifully clear, the air for many 
feet from the earth was filled with a mass of snow, with air spaces somewhat larger 
than exist when the snow is lying on the ground. Objects at a distance of thirty 
feet could not be seen. There was some trouble in securing doo:-teams, because of 
the scarcity of dogs, but when the gale, which lasted three days, was over, the party 
started for ]Mat Yai with seven teams of twelve dogs each. 

REMOVING THE BODIES FROM THE TOMB. 

" Three days' travelling, with good Aveather, brought the party to Mat Yai, where 
the ten men spent the night in a hut twelve feet squai^. The good weather con- 
tinued during the next day, and at noon the party halted at the tomb containing the 
remains of DeLong and his companions. To open the tomb, remove the snow and 
expose the bodies was the work of less than an hour. From descriptions as to cloth- 
ing and position, Mr. Harber was able to identify the bodies, and as each one was 
removed it was carefully marked and wrapped in felt. By nightfall the tomb was 
empty and again closed, and the party was at Mat Vai, ready for an early start in 
the morning. The run up the Lena to Bulun was a hard one. The loads were 
Vieavv and the ice was rough, and for a portion of the ^ime the party had to '^n- 



424 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

tend with strong head-winds and drifting snow. At Bulun a sled for each body was 
made, as all were so crooked that two could not easily be carried on one sled. After 
some delay in secm'ing deer, the train again started with sixteen sleds and forty deer. 
The rest of the tedious journey was made slowly, the deer being poor and often giv- 
ing out. But by struggling on day and night, Yakutsk was reached in safety on 
March 29, just as thawing weather set in. Throughout the journey the cold was 
great, the thermometer falling on one day to — 69° F. 

•' Since leaving St. Petersburg, eighteen months ago. Mr. Harber and Mr. 
Schuetze have had anything but a pleasant time. Their best beds for ten months 
were planks covered with deer-skins, and for many days they slept upon wet ground, 
often in the mud. Their diet has been fish, reindeer-meat, rice, and hard, black 
bread, to which were added potatoes, birds, white bread, frozen cabbage, and salt 
cucumbers while they were in Yakutsk." ' 

In closing this record of American heroism, one or two reflections 
may be permitted. This voyage certainly brings to the pages of his- 
tory a memorable story. If the Pole, or even a very high latitude, 
could have been reached by this route, or if, at the season of 1879, 
Wrangell or Herald Islands could have been made by any one, De- 
Long and his noble comrades would have secured one or all of these 
objects. Their professional ability, courage, energy, and fortitude are 
in proof. 

The Naval Court of Inquiry, after a most thorough examination of 
all the survivors of the Expedition, reported, as regards the performance 
of the duties expected from its officers, that the evidence shows " that 
in the management of the ' Jeannette' up to the time of her destruction. 
Lieutenant Commander DeLong, by his foresight and prudence, pro- 
vided measures to meet emergencies, and enforced wise regulations to 
maintain discipline, to preserve health, and to encourage cheerfulness 
among those under his command; and the physical condition of the 
people was good, with the exception of a few cases of lead poisoning, 
the result of eating canned provisions. The fact of the ship's having 
passed a second winter in the pack without any appearance of scurvy 
on board, sufficiently attests the excellence of the sanitary arrange- 
ments adopted, and reflects great credit upon her medical officer, 
Passed Assistant-Surgeon James M. Ambler, who throughout the 
expedition was indefatigable in the performance of his duties." It 
was to his constant care of the sanitary condition of the ship and 



THE NOKTH POLE NOT TO BE REACHED. 425 

the ship's company in regard to the air, light, ventilation, and drink- 
ing water, that the " Jeannette " passed through two such depress- 
ing winters without a touch of scurvy. Of the meteorologist, Mr. 
Jerome J. Collins, DeLong spoke as a gentleman who commended 
himself by his intelligent zeal and his determination to secure the 
best results of the expedition. Lieutenant Danenhower'^ narrative 
testifies to his usefulness as a meteorologist. His predictions of the 
southeast drift of June, 1881, were in keeping with his like accu- 
rate forewarnings while he was the meteorologist of the New York 
Herald, 

But the condition of the ice from even the date of August 1 of the 
year 1879-80 was exceptionally different, as has been shown, not only 
from DeLong's expectation, but from that of the years immediately pre- 
ceding. Giving full weight then to the disadvantageous delay experi- 
enced by his search for Professor Nordenskiold — a delay commented 
upon with justice by the Naval board — it seems clear that even without 
this delay, DeLong's urgent desire to put his ship into winter quarters in 
some harbor in Wrangell Land such as afterwards found by Berry, 
could not have been accomplished. His journal of September 4 reads : 
*' At 2 p. M. the greatest amount of w^ater space seeming to be to the 
northeast, the ' Jeannette ' made her way in that direction generally, 
and, at 4.30 had succeeded in getting out of the pack into the open 
sea." Seaman Nindemann also testifies that coming down from 
the crow's nest he reported to the Captain that there was plenty of 
water northward and eastward, to which DeLong answered: "I wish 
to try and make Wrangell Land if I can." Mndemann further testi- 
fied that on steaming a little to the northward, the ship struck a large 
lead that ran in toward Wrangell Land, and as there were still large . 
holes of open water to the westward, if she could have forced her way 
through the ice for about fifty yards ahead, she would have made 
further progress ; but, that in the night of the 5th, the ice had closed 
together and the young ice formed so thick it was impossible for a 
ship to steam through. If he "had had charge of the ship at that 
time, he would have done what Captain DeLong did, if he wanted 
to reach Wrangell Land." When the ship entered the lead, Septem- 



426 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

ber 5, he thought " there was a fair chance of getting her through to 
Wrangell Land." 

In connection with such statements, how impressive is the lesson 
drawn anew from the uncertainties of ice-navigation, and how disheart- 
ening DeLong's journal of the 12th : — 

" It is unpleasant to realize that our exploration for a whole year 
should come to a stop on the 6th September, and that at a point which 
a sailing ship, the ' Vincennes,' reached in 1855 without any difficulty. 
And here we are in a steamer, and beset in the pack before we are two 
months out of San Francisco. My disappointment is great, how great 
no one else will probably ever know. I had hoped to accomplish some- 
thing new in the first summer." 

How promptly arises the now useless regret that a harbor could not 
have been secured, and the ship's company of the " Jeannette" sheltered 
on the island, and at the worst, if no further northward progress had 
been made they had been maintained on their abundant supplies and 
finally rescued by the "Corwin," the "Rodgers," or some passing w^haler. 

Once more — how can the further regret be stilled which arises 
from the fact that/ through the imperfect information of the charts, 
and also, it is believed, from some European publications in the hands 
of Captain DeLong, a landing was made by him at so unfavorable a 
point, and the uncertain course from it taken on the Lena Delta which 
ended only in destruction? With better information he might have 
been directed to a safe landing ; he was within twenty-five miles of a 
Siberian settlement. 

Yet these unavailing regrets may well give place to the sentiments 
of reverence and just esteem for the noble dead, and to the consoling 
reflection that in the judgment of the Naval Court of Inquirj^ every- 
thing possible w^as done for their relief. " Considering," the court 
says, " the condition of the survivors, the unfavorable season, the 
limited knowledge of the country, the want of facilities for prose- 
cuting the search, and the great difficulty of communicating with 
the natives ; everything possible was done for the relief of the other 
parties." The Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, Commodore Walker, 
veports the entry upon the Charts of the U. S. Hydrographic Office, of 



HONORS TO DeLONG AND HIS COMRADES. 427 

the group of islands discovered by DeLong, as the " DeLong Islands," 
in memory of that gallant officer. The Hydrographer, Commander 
De Kraft, in connection with this notice says : " that the islands con- 
sidered an extension of the New Siberian group are thus entered on the 
Chart, as a lasting testimonial in the regions of eternal ice to the intre- 
pidity of the Commander of the 'Jeannette,' who reache;! a higher 
latitude in the Siberian Arctic than any heretofore attained." 

The review of the whole voyage which is to be found in the Bulletin 
de la Societe de Gieographie^ 1st Trimestre, 1883, closes thus : " Honor 
to DeLong, who alwaj^s knew how to exercise the fullest qualities of 
courage and of command ! Honor to all his comrades, officers, and 
sailors, whose spirit of discipline and sacrifice is a glory to the navy 
which counts such men within its ranks." This is the tribute of an im- 
partial judge who had at hand all the elements of a proper judgment. 

Note. — Since these papers were sent to the press, the author has received from 
Engineer Melville a copy of a, letter (translated from the Russian) written to him by 
General Tchernaieff from Irkutsk, in which letter, after repeated expressions of esteem, 
the Governor gives a detailed list of the crosses of honor, medals, and moneys recently 
bestowed by the Czar on the Ispravniks and on the natives who assisted Melville and 
Danenhower in their searches for DeLong and Chipj). The Governor had recom- 
mended rewards for the Russian exiles also who had assisted in the search. His 
letter says that " the papers of these Criminal Exiles have been asked for by the Min- 
ister, and recommendation is to be made thereon to the Czar for his action." INlay 
the humane and prompt deeds of humanity related by Danenhower, as received from 
some of these poor exiles, recall them from the Siberian wilds to their native lands! 

The cable dispatch below gives the latest words from Lieutenant Harber, who 
with the remains of the ten of the Delta may be expected within sixty days : — 

"Irkutsk, Dec. 21. 
"The remains of Commander DeLong and his comrades of the ill-fated ' Jean- 
nette ' Expedition have arrived here. The remains were borne in procession through 
the streets to-day, escorted by a detachment of troops. A multitude of people joined 
in the cortege. Many wreaths were placed upon the coffins, and printed copies of 
poems describing the exploits and unhappy end of DeLong and his party were dis- 
tributed among the crowd. The remains will be taken to America." 

These honors were not prompted by curiosity only, for the condition of the bodies 
was well known. Memorials are proposed for erection at the Naval Academy, 
Annapolis. 



^^k^^^ 



CHAPTER XL 

RELIEF EXPEDITIONS FOR THE "JEANNETTE." 

THE FIRST CRUISE OF THE " COR WIN," 1880. — THE MISSING WHALERS. 

INSTRUCTIONS OF SECRETARY SHERMAN FOR THEIR SEARCH AND 

FOR THE '^ JEANNETTE." — THE SHIP REFITTED AT SAN FRANCISCO. — 
ARRIVES AT OUNALASKA, JUNE 7TH. — NIPPED IN THE PACK OFF 
CAPE ROMANZOFF, JUNE 16TH. — ENTERS THE ARCTIC SEA 28TH. — 
LAST SIGHT OF THE "MOUNT WOLLASTON " AND "VIGILANT" RE- 
PORTED BY CAPTAIN BAULDRY. — VISIT TO THE CAVE DWELLERS ON 
king's island. — THE COAL VEIN EAST OF CAPE LISBURNE. — WITH- 
IN SEVEN MILES OF HERALD ISLAND. — WRANGELL LAND IN SIGHT. 
LAND SEEN TO THE NORTH. — RETURN OF THE " CORWIN." — CAP- 
TAIN hooper's NOTES OF THE ICE — OF THE HABITS AND CUSTOMS 
OF THE NATIVES ON THE SHORES OF THE ARCTIC. 

SECOND CRUISE OF THE " CORWIN," 1881. — INSTRUCTIONS OF SECRE- 
TARY SHERMAN. — OFFICERS. — SAILING FROM SAN FRANCISCO. — 
ONALGA PASS. — OUNALASKA. — ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND. — REPORTS 
OF THE ISHSSING SHIPS AT CAPE SERDZE-KA^IEN. — SLEDGE PARTY TO 
REACH THE SHORE. — PLOVER BAY. — RETURN TO CAPE SERDZE. — 
LANDING ON HERALD ISLAND. — CHARACTER OF THE ISLAND. — 
LANDING ON WRANGELL LAND. — DISCOVERY OF THIS LAND BY 
CAPTAINS LONG AND RAYNOR, 1867. — THE " CORWIN " THE FIRST 
TO EXPLORE IT. — HOISTS THE U. S. FLAG. — VISIT TO POINT BAR- 
ROW. — RETURN TO SAN FRANCISCO. — TRIBUTE TO DeLONG. 

THE FIRST CRUISE, MAY 22 TO OCTOBER 12, 1880. 

WHEN the North Pacific whaling fleet of 1879 had returned 
from their cruise later than usual, without bringing any word 
of the " Jeannette," and it was further learned that two of 
their number, the "Mount Wollaston " and the " Vigilant," had not 
been seen later than October 10, and then in the same region where 
the " Jeannette " had been last seen, much anxiety began to be felt for 

428 



THE "CORWIN," 1880. 429 

the ships. In the spring following, petitions were forwarded to Con- 
gress and to the Naval authorities, asking for Relief Expeditions in 
search of the " Jeannette." The U. S. Treasury Department was first 
able to offer assistance. 

May 15, 1880, Secretary Sherman ordered the Revenue Steamer 
"Corwin," Captain C. L. Hooper commanding, to proceed from San 
Francisco on a cruise in the waters of Alaska, chiefly " for the enforce- 
ment of the provisions of law and protection of the interests of the 
U. S. Government on the seal islands, and the sea otter hunting grounds 
and of Alaska generally ; but, additionally, to afford assistance to the 
two whalers, ' Mount Wollaston ' and ' Vigilant ' if they should possibly 
be fallen in with." They had been reported to the Department as hav- 
ing been probably caught in the ice within the Arctic Ocean, while 
endeavoring to return through Bering Straits. 

Captain Hooper was further instructed to make careful inquiries 
while in the Arctic, regarding the progress and whereabouts of the 
steamer " Jeannette," and, if practicable, to communicate with and 
extend any assistance to that vessel. He was permitted in his discre- 
tion to remain in the Arctic Ocean as late in the season as might be 
necessary to accomplish the object of his voyage without encountering 
undue hazard to his command. The " Corwin " was built at Abina, 
Oregon, entirely of Oregon fir, fastened with copper, galvanized iron, 
and locust tree nails ; her length between perpendiculars was one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven feet six inches ; beam moulded, twenty-three 
feet; over all tw:enty-four feet; draught ten feet ten inches; tonnage 
two hundred and twenty-seven, custom-house measurement. She was 
now strengthened with one-inch oak plank, two feet above water line 
to six feet below, from stem to stern, put on over the copper and 
secured with two and a half inch composition nails. She was f^irnished 
with a three-eighth inch iron ice-breaker, a new steam windlass was 
built, and all her machinery thoroughly overhauled and renewed. 
Under steam she could make eleven knots. Captain E. H. Smith, 
experienced in Arctic navigation, went out as ice-pilot to the ship's 
company numbering in all forty persons. They were provisioned for 
twelve months. 



430 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The " Corwin " arrived at Ounalaska after a rough passage of 
twelve days, sailmg from which port June 8, and touching at St. Paul's 
lat. 57° 5', long. 169° 51', she shaped her course for Cape Romanzoff, 
and at daylight of the 11th, first struck the ice north of Kounivak 
Island, lat. 60° N., long. 160° W. The heavy pitching and grinding 
along the edge of the pack made it unsafe to attempt to force the way, 
and the ''Corwin" anchored in a fair harbor until tLe going down of 
the gale on the 13th. After working about twenty miles through leads, 
picked out from time to time, on the 15th Captain Hooper found him- 
self utterly helpless, drifting with the pack southward and eastward 
about two miles per hour. At 8 A.M. he was in only five fathoms of 
water among grounded ice, which gave the vessel sharp nips, trying her 
strength. At one time the "Corwin " was lifted up bodily several feet, 
and held suspended for some minutes ; coming in contact with one, 
" stern on," the rudder was forced over, the screw steering gear carried 
away, and the wheel chains parted. Happily the rudder stock, which 
was of the best Oregon oak, stood the strain, although for a time it 
seemed as if nothing could save it. On the 16th, the ship continued 
to drift helplessly all day. 

On the 17th, a sharp northeast gale broke up the ice and started it 
off shore, allowing the " Corwin " to proceed towards Norton Sound 
and St. Michael's, where she was again detained several days. She had 
received from the natives the unwelcome news that the previous win- 
ter had been the most severe ever known, a report confirmed by the 
sealers from Norton Sound. 

Steaming over to St. Lawrence Island to investigate a report which 
had been made to the Treasury Department of a fearful starvation of 
the inhabitants there, Captain Hooper found one village entirely de- 
serted, and in a second not a living being, but many of the dead un- 
buried, the whole number of those who perished being estimated at one 
hundred and fifty. At other villages they had died by hundreds, the 
survivors reporting that the weather had been cold and stormy for a 
long time with great quantities of ice and snow; his again was no 
encouraging news in regard to the missing whalers and the "Jean- 
nette." 



432 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

At 6 P.M. of the 28th, the " Corwin " entered the Arctic Sea ; on 
the 30th she made two whalers, one of which had communicated with 
the natives at Point Hope, but could learn no good tidings there. Fol- 
lowing the ice pack around from Cape Serdze Kamen, and communi- 
cating with the natives and whalers on both sides of Bering Strait and 
within the Arctic Ocean, she learned from them without exception that 
in their opinion nothing would ever be heard of the "Mount Wollas- 
ton"* or the "Vigilant." They were reported as last seen by Captain 
Bauldry of the " Helen Mar " of New Bedford, forty miles southeast of 
Herald Island, with clear water at the time to the northward, in which 
direction they were steering. Captain Bauldry himself had escaped 
with difficulty by forcing a passage through the new ice which formed 
rapidly around him, but a sudden change of wind had driven the miss- 
ing whalers northiuesterly into the open water, while a heavy body of 
ice south of them prevented all escape. 

From the date last named, until the sailing of the " Corwin " from 
Ounalaska, October 2, for San Francisco, the ship cruised almost with- 

* Mr. j^ewcomb, the naturalist of the " Jeannette,^^ in his voknne of "Our Lost 
Explorers," quotes from Mr. William Bradford of San Francisco, the following unhappy- 
note of an interview at that port between the captain of the " Mount Wollaston " and Lieu- 
tenant DeLong. " A short time before Lieutenant DeLong's departure, I suggested to him 
that we call together all the whaling captains then in port — most of whom I knew well 
personally — and avail ourselves of whatever information their experience might afford 
and suggestioi-^ they might have to make. He accepted the idea and arranged the meet- 
ing, and they all attended. One by one they gave their opinions, mainly upon the point 
of their greatest interest, the probable direction of the winds and currents at the time 
when Lieutenant DeLong expected to reach Wrangell Land. But there was one among 
them who kept ominously silent, not venturing an opinion or offering a suggestion. I 
finally said : ' Captain JN'ye has not given us his opinion, and we would like to hear from 
him.' He said : ' Gentlemen, there is n't much to be said about this matter. You, Lieu- 
tenant DeLong, have a very strong vessel, have you not ? — magnificently equipped for the 
service, with unexceptionable crew and aids. And you will take plenty of provisions and 
all the coal you can carry?' To each of these questions, as it was asked, Lieutenant 
DeLong replied affirmatively. ' Then,' said Captain Nye, * put her into the ice and let her 
drift, and you may get through, or you may go to the devil, and the chances are about 
equal.' Poor Captain Nye ! he ventured in there after Lieutenant DeLong — into those 
same Arctic regions, in the prosecution of his enterprise as a whaler — and was never 
heard of again. He was from New Bedford, Mass., was one of the oldest, bravest and 
best men in the service, and there was no man sailing to the frigid seas who knew more of 
their perils than he who made that ominous forecast of the probable fate of the ' Jean- 
nette,' if not of her commander." 



KING S ISLAND. 488 

out delay for the ice-floes or for rest to her crew, steaming' over six 
thousand miles in the Arctic Ocean, without gaining any tidings of the 
missing vessels. July 6, Captain Hooper communicated with the na- 
tives of King's Island, about thirty miles south-southeast from the 
Diomedes, which lie in lat. 65° 38' 40", long. 161° 41'. The island is 
about seven hundred feet high, with almost perpendicular basalt cliffs, 
on the summit of which were found a number of stone columns re- 
sembling the remains of some old feudal castle. The officers of the 
" Corwin " climbed the steep cliff which rises from the sea at an angle 
of about 45°, and on which the village of the island was found to be 
composed of about forty houses ; some excavated in the sides of the 
cliff, others made of walrus skin stretched on poles secured to the rocks 
outside. Some of these houses are two hundred feet above the water. 
The natives of this Arctic Gibraltar are very expert with the kayak. It 
is said that when the surf is breaking against the perpendicular sides of 
the island, should it be necessary to launch a canoe for any purpose, 
the native who is to embark takes his seat in his kayak as near the surf 
as he can approach with safety, secures his waterproof shirt made of 
the intestines of the walrus to the rim of the hatch, grasps his paddle, 
and watching a ^favorable opportunity, gives a signal to two men who 
stand in readiness, and is thrown entirely clear of the surf. ''The 
kayaks are probably the finest in the world, but, owing to the rough 
service they have to perform, are made somewhat heavier than those 
in use in Kotzebue Sound, and are covered with walrus hide." 

From King's Island the ship proceeded to St. Michael's and thence 
to Cape Prince of Wales, the high, ragged, and most western point of 
the North American Continent, lat. Bb° 33' 30", long. 167° 59' 10'. July 
14th, she was at Cape Espenberg on the w^estern side of Kotzebue 
Sound; on the 19th, after passing Cape Kensenstern she headed for 
Point Hope, from which she endeavored to start north again, but found 
it impossible to penetrate the ice. 

On the 22d, the southeast gales having driven the pack northward, 
she rounded Cape Lisburne, Where she found the '' Mary and Helen " 
(afterwards the "Rodgers" of Lieutenant Berry's Relief Expedition), 
which had taken eight whales. East of Cape Lisburne a valuable coal 



434 AT^CERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

deposit was visited, lat. 68° 50' N., long. 164° 55' W. "The veins of 
coal on the face of the cliff can be seen distinctly at the distance of 
one mile, and there is good anchorage with a southerly wind within 
half a mile of the shore in four fathoms of water and fair holding 
ground." 

On the 28th the ship was in lat. 70° 50' N. ; long. 175° 0' 3" W., 
only thirty-five miles from Herald Island, but could not reach it for the 
solid pack, and stood again southward. August 4, Herald Island 
was again made, bearing west by north half north by compass, distant 
about thirty-five miles, and the ship worked toward it through heavy 
drift ice until it was judged to be but twenty miles distant, when 
finding it impossible to proceed further, the ice packing close around 
the vessel, and a dense fog shutting down over the island, it was 
deemed unsafe to remain longer. While in sight of the island a look- 
out was kept from the masthead in the hope of seeing smoke or some 
sign indicating the presence of human beings ; nothing could be seen. 
A Polar monster weighing at least two thousand pounds was shot by 
Captain Hooper. 

Keeping to the southward along the ice pack in long. 176° 15'. 
Hooper tried to ascertain if it were possible to get around its southern 
point and up to the southern extremity of Wrangell Land. A dense 
fog prevented him from determining satisfactorily the condition of the 
ice in the straits between Wrangell Land and the coasts of Asia, but he 
was satisfied that, had there been no fog, he could not have reached 
Wrangell Land. 

August 17, Herald Island was again seen bearing south-southwest 
about seven miles ; and on the 20th the ship hauled up for it, steaming 
in the ice about six miles, when she was stopped by a solid barrier of 
unbroken ice extending nearly north and south, and from twelve to 
forty feet in height. After examining the island very carefully with 
the glass from a distance of only three or four miles, and assuring him- 
self of the impossibility of there being any human beings on it, Cap- 
tain Hooper worked his way back to clear water. 

The sides of Herald Island were seen as perpendicular cliffs eight 
hundred feet high, its top, then covered with clouds, is said to be six 



r ^ 

s 

I ^ 

:3 y 




436 AMERICAN EXPLOKATTONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

hundred feet higher. Hooper quotes Captain Kellett, R. N., who on 
discovering it on his voyage in the " Herald " in 1849, succeeded only 
in getting a foothold on a projecting rock, as describing the island to 
be four and a half miles in extent east and west, and two and a half 
north and south, in the shape of a triangle almost inaccessible on all 
sides, and a solid mass of granite. 

Most unhappy anticipations were forced upon the "Corwin" of 
the experiences which the journal of the " Jeannette " has since re- 
vealed as facts in her history. The icy batrier surrounding the 
island was unbroken and clearly of no recent formation, and Cap- 
tain Hooper firmly believed that the ice did not leave the island the 
previous year, and that it is not unusual for it to remain even two or 
three years ; that it rarely breaks up between the island and Wrangell 
Sound. No whaler had gone west of Herald Island the previous year. 

After touching at Point Belcher, Icy Cape, Point Barrow, and 
Point Hope, on September 10, the " Corwin " passed a few miles 
again to the southward of Herald Shoal, and, finding the southern 
limit of the northern pack so changed in position that she could not 
get as far North by fifty miles as she had gone the 23d of August, 
followed the pack southwest until the high hills of Wrangell Land 
were in clear sight, bearing west, one-fourth south (true). Captain 
Hooper says : — 

" That part of Wrangell Land seen, covered an arc of the horizon of 
about fifty degrees, from northwest, one-fourth north to west, one- 
fourth south (true), and was distant from twenty-five miles on the 
former bearing to thirty-five or forty miles on the latter. On the south 
were three mountains probably three thousand feet high, entirely 
covered with snow, the central one presenting a conical appearance 
and the others showing slightly rounded tops. 

" To the northward of these mountains was a chain of rounded hills, 
those near the sea being lower and nearly free from snow, while the 
back hills, which probably reach an elevation of two thousand feet, 
were quite white. To the north of the northern bearing given, the 
land ends entirely or becomes very low. The atmosphere was very 
clear, and we could easily have seen any laud above the horizon within 



EODGERS HARBOK ACCESSIBLE. 437 

a distance of sixty or seventy miles, but none except that described 
could be seen from the masthead. » . . There are numerous reports of 
whalers having seen this land, and having sailed along its shores 
with no ice in sight, and their tracks and positions are laid down 
on the American Hydrographic Chart; their exact position for each 
day being shown. The fact that the whalers keep no ^reckoning, 
and take no observations while whaling, will show how utterly un- 
reliable these tracks must be. They have a general knowledge of 
the part of the ocean they are in, and keep a close run of the ice 
pack. Their object is to take whales and to this they give their 
whole attention. 

" Although it is possible that there are times when the shores of 
Wrangell Land are free from ice, it is still very doubtful ; it must 
certainly be but seldom. The argument is advanced that Point Barrow, 
which is some miles north of the southern limit of this land, is, at 
times, entirely free from ice, and that, therefore, Wrangell Land must 
also be free. The answer to this is, that the immense body of warm 
water which is constantly pouring through Bering Strait into the 
Arctic, washes the shores of Point Barrow, but does not pass within 
two hundred and fifty miles of Wrangell Land. The vast amount of 
lieat diffused in this manner, and its wonderful effects are too well 
tnown and understood to need repetition here. I believe, however, 
that it is possible, at times, for a strong vessel, properly equipped and 
fitted, to make her way inshore far enough to reach a safe harbor among 
the grounded ice, within easy travelling distance of the land, where she 
could remain in safety, and exploring parties be sent out to examine 
the land. (The warm current spoken of here has been shown to be 
temporary.) 

" I am of the opinion that Wrangell Land is a large island .possibly 
of a chain that passes through the Polar regions to Greenland. Cap- 
tain Keenan, then commanding the bark ' James Allen,' reports having 
seen land to the northward of Harrison Bay, a few degrees east of Point 
Barrow, eighty or one hundred miles north: 'When the fog lifted high 
land was visible to the northward a long distance away but perfectly 
distinct.' " 



438 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

This report will be noted as confirming Lieutenant DeLong's journal 
record of land thus believed to have been seen to the north when he 
was near Herald Island. Bat its existence is, at least, questionable.* 

Bidding farewell to Wrangell Land, the " Corwin " steamed east- 
ward, reaching Point Hope September 12, Cape Prince of Wales on 
the 13th, St. Paul's Island the 21st, and Ounalaska on the 22d. Octo- 
ber 2, she set sail for San Francisco, arriving there after a quick and 
favorable run of ten days. She was forced to the conclusion that 
the missing whalers had been crushed and carried north in the pack, 
and that their crews had perished. DeLong, Hooper thought, might 
be safe. 

Two other objects of equal importance with the search had been 
accomplished: one, the investigation of some dangerous shoals, in 
regard to which Captain Franklin, Hydrographer of the U. S. Bureau 
of Navigation, had asked Captain Hooper's attention for the correct- 
ness of some coast line on the Hydrographic charts ; the other, the 
seizure and sending to the United States several vessels found engaged 
in the illicit trade of supplying the natives in Alaska Territory with 

* In illustration of the deceptive appearances indicating the supposed existence of 
land, Dr. Rosse, the surgeon of the " Corwin " says : — 

"Not the least curious of the atmospheric phenomena are the modifications of nervous 
excitability in connection with the perception of light — the wonderful optical illusions 
witnessed from time to time during periods of extraordinary and unequal refraction. One 
day in July, at St. Michael's, I saw on looking northward an island high up in the air and 
inverted ; some distant peaks, invisible on ordinary occasions, loomed up and at one time 
the very shape of a tower-topped building magnified, and suddenly changing, assumed the 
shape of immense factory chimneys. Again, off Port Clarence, was witnessed the optical 
phenomenon of dancing mountains and the mirage of ice fifty miles away, which caused our 
experienced ice-pilot to say : 'No use to go in here, don't you see the ice !' Again, the 
mountains of Bering Straits have so betrayed the imagination that they have been seen 
to assume the most fantastical and grotesque shapes, at one moment that of a mountain, 
not unlike Table Mountain, off the Cape of Good Hope ; then the changing diorama shows 
the shape of an immense anvil, followed by the likeness of an enormous gun mounted 
en barbette, the whole standing out in silhouette against the background, while looking: 
in an opposite direction at another time a whaling vessel, turned bottom upward, appeared 
in the sky. On another occasion, in lat. 70°, when the state of the air was favorable to 
extraordinary refraction, a white gull swimming on the water in the distant horizon was 
taken for an iceberg, or more correctly a floe-berg ; other gulls in the distance, looming up, 
looked for all the world like white tents on a beach, while others resembled men with 
white shirts paddling a canoe. 



NO ICEBERGS. 439 

whiskey and ammunition. The location of Point Hope was found by 
close observations to be laid down on the U. S. Hydrographic charts, 
seven miles of longitude too far west; and the land between Cape 
Serdze Kamen and Koliutchin Bay, about fifteen miles too far to the 
north. 



Careful observations of the ice formations and of its openings in- 
duced a report which is best presented in Captain Hooper's own 
words. He says of the ice and its habits : — / 

" In that part of the Arctic visited by the ' Corwin,' the ice is 
quite different from that in the vicinity of Greenland. No immense 
icebergs raise their frozen peaks hundreds of feet in the air. The 
highest ice seen by us during the season would not exceed fifty feet in 
height. The average height of the main pack is from ten to fifteen 
feet, with huinmocks that rise to twenty or thirty feet. Occasionally, 
however, fields are met with which rise forty or even fifty feet above 
the water. The specific gravity of sea-ice is .91; hence only about a 
tenth is visible above the surface of the water. A field twenty feet in 
height may have a depth of nearly two hundred feet. This enormous 
thickness is caused by one layer being forced upon another by the 
action of wind and current. The greatest thickness it attains by freez- 
ing is about eighteen feet ; at that depth, ice ceases to be a conductor 
of temperature. The maximum depth reached in a single winter is, 
according to Parry, Wrangell, and other Arctic travellers, about nine 
and one-half feet. 

" The ice of the Arctic Ocean is never at rest. Even in the coldest 
winters it is liable to displacement and pressure by the currents of 
air and water. The expansions and contractions, due to changes in 
temperature, also assist in this disturbance. Owing to these com- 
bined causes, the surface of the ice always presents a rough, uneven 
appearance. 

" Along the edge of the pack, during the summer, is generally found 
a belt of drift-ice, varying in width according to the direction of the 
Wind. When the wind blows off the pack, drift-ice is frequently found 



440 AMERICAI!^ EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

fifteen or twenty miles from the main body. At times the pack itself 
opens in leads, by which it may be penetrated for several miles. In 
venturing within the limits of the pack, however, a sharp watch inust 
be kept on the movements of the ice and a retreat made at the first 
indication of its closing. 

" A vessel beset in the pack is as helpless as if she were as far inland, 
while there is imminent danger of being crushed at any moment. 

" When the wind blows on the pack, the drift-ice becomes as close 
as the pack itself. ... 

" The ' barrier,' or that part of the ice which does not break up, 
varies slightly in position from year to year, but generally may be 
looked for near Icy Cape during September. It extends westerly as 
far as Herald Shoal, where it takes a northwesterly direction to the 
vicinity of Herald Island. Here, in August and September, a lane of 
open water is generally found extending to the northward. This space 
is at first filled with broken ice. On our second attempt to reach the 
island, we steamed up this lane over fifty miles, with the pack in sight 
from the masthead on both sides. The last twenty miles we were 
compelled to force our way through drift-ice. 

'' As stated elsewhere, the ice-ba^rrier extends several degrees further 
south between Point Barrow and Wrangell Land, than in any other 
part of the Arctic regions." 

THE INNUITS. 

Of the appearance, character, and habits of the natives of these 
regions of which little has been known, the Reports of this and of the 
next cruise of the " Corwin " furnish interesting data, additional to 
those supplied by the late Captain Bailey of the ''Rush," Captain 
Beardslee, U. S. N., Mr. Dall of the U. S. Coast Survey, and Mr. Elliott 
and other observers for the Smithsonian and the Signal Service. Their 
labors and the results are accredited in the Reports of the Smithsonian. 

In the Report of this first cruise. Captain Hooper notes some 
peculiarities of the Coast Indians, and some diversities among them 
in regard to their habits as compared with those of the Interior 
and with the Eskimos of the East Coast of North America. He 



THE "BADARKA." 441 

says of the natives of Nounivah Island, rarely visited by traders on 
account of shallow waters along the coast, that the inhabitants ran 
away to the hills at his approach; the next day, however, he succeeded 
iu capturing one man, three women and three children, all much alarmed 
with the expectation of being killed. Their fears were quieted by a 
present of tobacco, and the man was persuaded to come on board, and 
seemed much interested in all he saw, a looking-glass astonishing him 
more than all else, first alarming and then amusing him. He did not 
know the use of brandy or whiskey, spitting them out in disgust. 
Putting his hands on the stove he seemed astonished that it burned 
him, and tried it a second time. The ten houses of the settlement are 
built of mud and connected by an underground passage ; a common 
entrance and the only one, is a covered way in the centre of the circle 
in which they are built, short branches running off to the separate 
houses. 

" The badarka in use differs somewhat from that used by the Aleu- 
tian Islanders ; the former is shorter and has more beam, and is made 
to carry \only one person. The natives venture but in all kinds of 
weather, but always in pairs, never going singly. Like the Aleutian 
Island badarkas, these are made of skin, seal or sea-lion, drawn over a 
light frame of wood, with a small round hole in the top, in which the 
native sits and paddles, and from which he shoots or spears game. 
When night comes on, he draws his badarka on the ice, crawls down 
out of sight, and, wrapping himself in his ' parkie,' or fur shirt, goes to 
sleep. They carry their rifles and a supply of seal-meat inside the 
badarka, and their spears and sled lashed on the top ; thus equipped, 
they are prepared for land or water travel. If caught in a gale they 
lash two badarkas together and ride it out in safety." 

Of the Eskimos of the North American coast, he says : — i 

" These Innuits (by which name only these people know each other) 
are totally unlike the Eskimos described in books of travel, being tall 
and muscular, many of them over six feet in height ; one at Cape Kru- 
zenstern fully six feet six inches. Their remarkable physical develop- 
ment seems due to a mixture with the Indians of the interior, those 
living on the Yukon and Tennenah Rivers and other places, having 



442 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

long muscular limbs and erect figures, showing courage, strength, and 
endurance. Like all aborigines, the men are lazy and compel the 
women to perform all the manual labor ; Captain Hooper saw two 
women each with a child on her back, drawing a thirty foot net for 
salmon, while the men stood by smoking, without offering to assist,, 
although it was evident the task was too much for the women. 

" The seal may be called their main stay, the flesh and oil form the 
chief article of subsistence, the skin furnishes clothing, tents, and 
boats ; cut into thongs, it is used for making nets for catching fish and 
birds. The oil is burned in lamps which light and warm the tupiks- 
during the long, dark winter nights. 

" They hunt seals on the ice in the spring and fall, and show them- 
selves marvels of patience, lying flat on the ice for hours, waiting for a 
seal to appear. The seal is very shy, and seldom moves far from the 
hole in the ice, which they keep open by scratching. The hunter 
approaches cautiously, by crawling over the ice, his body nearly pros- 
trate, raised slightly on one elbow. He has a piece of bear-skin, about 
two feet long and a foot wide, which he attaches to his leg on the side 
upon which he rests ; this enables him to slide more easily over the ice. 
The elbow rests upon a ring of grass. He carries a stick, to which is^ 
attached the claw of some animal or bird, to use in imitating the 
scratching of the seal on the ice. In the other hand he supports his. 
rifle, in readiness for instant use. 

" In hunting whales the natives use the ' oomiak.' They use spears, 
with heads of flint or walrus ivory, pointed with iron; the pole i& 
about six feet long, and attached to it by a line of seal-thongs is a 
seal-skin poke. A number of these spears being thrown into the 
whale, the pokes prevent him from going far below the surface, and 
enable the hunters to track him, and be on hand to kill him when he 
comes up to breathe. The carcass, including flesh and blubber, is used 
for food, and is the property of every man, woman, and child in the 
settlement; the bone, however, belongs to those who took part in the 
capture. The maxillary bones of the whale are cut into strips used 
for shoeing the runners of their sleds, and for this purpose are said to 
be superior to iron or steel. 



A TRAVELLING FAMILY. 



443 



"These natives are nomadic in their habits ; although they have win- 
ter-houses, to which they return each fall, they travel all summer. 
Their manner of travelling is peculiar to themselves; they use the 
Gotoiak, in which is stow^ed everything belonging to the entire family, 
except the working-dogs. 

"This oomiak is a boat built of walrus-hide or seal-skin drayvn over a 
wooden frame about thirty feet long, six feet wide, and two and a half 
feet deep. The frame is fastened with seal-skin thongs, and made with 
slip-joints, to allow it to work in a sea-way. They are flat-bottomed, 
sharp at both ends, and with very little shear. The men use paddles 
and the women oars ; they carry a square sail. An ordinary oomiak 
contains, in addition to the stock- 
in-trade of oil, skins, etc., a tent of 
drilling or deer-skin, guns, traps, 
spears, bows and arrows, a kayak, a 
seal-skin poke filled with water, a 
qiife-ntity of dried meat, a sled, sev- 
eral pairs of snow-shoes, a fish-net, 
and several smaller nets for catch- 
ing birds, a large drum on a pole 
for the use of the 'shaman,' and several seal-skin bags containing skin 
clothing. 

"On first approaching a vessel, one native stands up in the bow of 
the oomiak, and extends his arms at full length, raises them until the 
hands meet above the head, then, with the arms still extended, he drops 
them to his side. This he repeats several times, each time saying 
'nakouruck' (good). If the same sign is made in return, they ap- 
proach the vessel at once without fear ; if not answered, they approach 
cautiously, from time to time repeating the sign. ^ 

" The personnel consists of three or four men, about as many women, 
and two or three children. Add to these two or three dogs, each with 
a litter of puppies, and some idea may be formed of what a travelling 
oomiak contains. 

"The working-dogs are often left on the beach to follow on foot, 
which thev do, keeping up a continual and most dismal howl. If the 




OOMIAK. 



444 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIOKS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

wind comes in ahead, and the natives desire, for any reason, to continue 
their journey, they paddle in near the shore, harness their dogs, and 
attach them to the oomiak, after the manner of a canal-boat and horses, 
settle themselves in the boat, and saying ' nakouruck,' (good !) go on 
their way at the rate of four or five miles an hour, with no other effort 
than steering with the paddle, wondering, probably, why white men 
will build ' oomiak-paks,' (large vessels), when the native style of 
travel is so much more simple and economical. When they wish to 
stop for a night or day, they land, pitch their tent, take everything out 
of the oomiak, and turn it up on the beach, where they are quite as 
much at home as in their winter-houses; men, women, children, and 
dogs forming a happy, noisy, dirty family. They eat when they feel 
hungry, which seems to be nearly all the time, and sleep without regard 
to time. The dogs eat when they can, and steal anything they can get 
their teeth through.' 

« 

LANGUAGE. • 

" The native language differs very materially in different localities. 
Our interpreter from St. Michael's was of no use to us north of Kot- 
zebue Sound, and even there it was difficult for him to understand the 
dialect. The change is gradual. At each settlement, from Cape Prince 
of Wales north, we observed a slight difference ; the sound of words 
changed so as to be almost unrecognizable, or the words were dropped 
entirely and new ones substituted, until almost an entire change had 
been effected in the language ; so that a vocabulary made at Cape 
Prince of Wales would be almost useless at Point Hope, and entirely 
so at Icy Cape or Point Barrow. A few substantives alone remain the 
same all along the coast." 
/ 

SUPERSTITIONS. 

" The religious belief of the Innuit is of a crude, indefinite nature, to 
the effect that there is a Power which rewards good Innuits and pun- 
ishes bad ones, after death, by sending them to different places. At 
some localities they told us that the good went to a place above, while 
at others it was thought that the place was below. They have only a 



SUPERSTITION. 445 

confused idea of the subject, however, and seemed anxious to avoid 
speaking of it any more than was necessary. Their belief evidently 
teaches nothing of truthfulness, honesty, or other virtue, or that clean- 
liness is next to godliness. 

'"Shamanism ' is followed by all these people, and, notwithstanding 
the numerous tricks practised upon them, they seem to have implicit 
faith in it. Even the ' shamans ' themselves show an earnestness in their 
work that makes us wonder, after all, if there is not some virtue in it. 
Wrangell, who seems to have given the subject some attention, says : 

" The ' shamans ' have been represented as being universally mere 
knavish deceivers, and no doubt this is true of many of them who go 
about the country exhibiting all kinds of juggling tricks to obtain 
presents ; but the history of not a few is, I believe, very different. 
Certain individuals are born with ardent imaginations and excitable 
nerves. They grow up amid a general belief in ghosts, ' shamans,' and 
mysterious powers exercised by the latter. The credulous youth is 
strongly affected, and aspires to participate in these supernatural com- 
munications and powers, but no one can teach him how he can do so. 
He retires, therefore, from his fellows ; his imagination is powerfully 
wrought upon by solitude, by the contemplation of the gloomy aspect 
of surrounding nature, by long vigils and fasts, and by the use of nar- 
cotics and stimulants, until he becomes persuaded that he, too, has 
seen the mysterious apparitions of which he has heard from his boy- 
hood. He is then received as a ' shaman,' with many ceremonies per- 
formed in the silence and darkness of the night ; is given the magic 
drum, etc. Still all his actions continue, as before, to be the result of 
his individual character. A true 'shaman,' therefore, is not an ordi- 
nary deceiver, but rather a psychological phenomenon, by no means 
unworthy of attention. Always, after seeing them operate, they have 
left on my mind a long-continued and gloomy impression ; the wild 
look, the bloodshot eye, the laboring breast, the convulsive utterance, 
the seemingly involuntary distortion of the face and whole body, the 
streaming hair, the hollow sound of the drum — all conspired to pro- 
duce the effect; and I can well conceive that these should appear to 
the ignorant and superstitious savage as the work of evil spirits." 



446 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

"While walking around the village," sajs Hooper, "we were notified 
that a sick man occupied one of the tents, and that a 'shaman ' was then 
engaged in an attempt to drive out the evil spirit which had possessed 
him. We were requested not to go to that part of the village, as it might 
have a bad effect. I told them that our surgeon, who was present, was 
a 'shaman,' and asked them to allow him to see the sick man, and hold 
a consultation with the 'shaman.' After some persuasioti, they con- 
sented to ask the 'shaman' if such an arrangement would be agree- 
able to him, and one of them advanced alone to the sick man's tent. 
He returned after a few minutes, and said we might go as far as the 
entrance, but must remain outside. The sick man was brought to the 
entrance, and found to be suffering from paralysis of the left side and 
a skin disease. He was a most pitiable object. The surgeon left some 
medicine for him, but it is probable that the ' shaman ' did not allow 
him to take it, and that he did not long survive the native treatment.'' 



TOBACCO SMOKING. 

"The natives are inveterate smokers. I believe that every man, 
woman, and child in Arctic- Alaska smokes a pipe. They manufacture 
their own pipes of brass, copper, and iron. The stem is of wood, about 
ten inches long, and is in two pieces bound together with strips of 
whalebone or sinew. The bowls are often made of two or three kinds 
of metal, as neatly joined as could be done by any jeweller. A small 
skin bag, hung from the neck, holds the pipe, and a smaller bag, 
tobacco, flint, and steel, also a quantity of wild cotton, soaked in a 
solution of gunpowder, which is used as tinder. A sharp-pointed piece 
of metal, used for cleaning the pipe, is attached to the stem with a 
thong. In using the pipe, a small quantity of hair from an at-te-ghe^ 
or other convenient skin, is put in the bottom of the bowl, and over 
this some finely-cut tobacco, the bowl holding only a small pinch. The 
pipe is lighted with flint, steel, and tinder, and the native commences 
to draw vigorously, swallowing the smoke, which he retains in his lungs 
as long as possible. A fit of coughing follows, which I at first thought 
would certainly terminate the life of the smoker in several instances. 



THE " JEANNETTE.'* 447 

It is not 'an unusual occurrence for a native, who has been without 
tobacco for a long time, to retain the smoke in his lungs until he falls 
over senseless, having the appearance of a person under the influence 
of opium. This state lasts but a few minutes, when the, same perfor- 
mance is again gone through with." 

Citations of equal interest with the preceding might be largely ex- 
tended from this report of Captain Hooper's of the date of Nov. 1, 
1880 ("Treasury Department, No. 118"). The reader is referred to 
the Report in full, and to the Medical, Anthropological, Botanical, and 
Ornithological Notes and Memoranda, written by Surgeon Rosse, Pro- 
fessor John Muir of California, and Mr. E. W. Nelson ; published as 
"Executive Document 105, House of Representatives," the only por- 
tion of the full Report of the Second Cruise of the "Corwin," 1881, as 
jet ordered for publication by Congress. 

In closing the first Report, Captain Hooper expressed himself as at 
first in doubt as to the safety of the " Jeannette." He considered the 
ship to be a stronger and better fitted vessel for the Arctic Seas than any 
of the whalers, and her crew thoroughly equipped for sledge travel ; and 
thought that if DeLong found himself compelled to abandon the ship 
in the last extremity, he could reach Plover Bay, or St. Lawrence Bay, 
or some other point on the Asiatic coast where they would be well 
cared for by the Tchuktchis. But his experience on this cruise com- 
pelled him more than once to state also, that to attain a high latitude 
with a vessel in that part of the Arctic must be seldom possible. No 
whaler had ever been known to reach the 74°: and nowhere within 
the Arctic Circle does the ice remain permanently so far south as be- 
tween Wrangell Land and Point Barrow. 

J 
THE SECOND CRUISE OF THE "COKWIN," MAY 4 TO OCT. 20, 1881.* 

The instructions of the Secretary of the Treasury for the second 
cruise of the " Corwin " bore the date of April 21, 1881. The first 

* By the courtesy of Major E. W. Clark, Chief of the Kevenue Marine Service 
Treasury Department, the writer has had access to the unpublished official report of this 
cruise, from the large amount of information supplied by which this narrative is made up. 



448 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

object set out in these was again the enforcement of the provisions of 
U. S. Laws, and the protection of the interests of the U. S. Government 
on the seal islands and sea-otter hunting grounds in Alaskan waters. 
Additionally the instructions read, " No information having been re- 
ceived concerning the whalers ' Mount WoUaston ' and ' Vigilant,' you 
will bear in mind the instructions for your cruise of last year, and it is 
hoped you may bring back some tidings of the missing vessels. You 
will also make careful inquiries in the Arctic regarding the progress 
and whereabouts of the steamer ' Jeannette,' engaged in making explo- 
rations under command of Lieutenant-Commander DeLong, U. S. N., 
and will, if practicable, communicate with and extend any needed assis- 
tance to that vessel. . . . You will in your season's cruise touch at such 
places as may be practicable on the mainland or islands where there 
are settlements of natives, and examine into and report upon their 
condition. 

"While cruising in the Arctic Sea you will make careful observations 
as to currents, tides, etc., and will keep an accurate record of such 
soundings, surveys, etc., as you may be able to make ; and you will 
obtain such information as may be practicable regarding the numbers, 
character, occupations, and general condition of the inhabitants of the 
adjacent coasts. . . . You are permitted in your discretion to remain in 
the Arctic Ocean as late in the season as may be necessary to accom- 
plish the object of your voyage, without encountering undue hazard to 
your command." 

The senior officers of this cruise were : Captain C. L. Hooper ; First 
Lieutenant, W. J. Herring ; Second Lieutenant, E. Burke ; Surgeon, 
Irving C. Eosse ; Scientist, Prof. John Muir of California. 

May 4, the " Corwin " sailed from San Francisco, accompanied out 
of the harbor by the revenue steamers " Rush " and " Hartley," and a 
number of the San Francisco Yacht Fleet. Heavy gales and snow 
storms were encountered on the 16th, compelling, with the strong 
current running against the northwest gale, a turn back and run into 
Beaver Harbor, which affords ample protection, having several good 
anchorages near the shore. The Onalga Pass between Ounalaska and 
the Onalga Islands was preferred by Captain Hooper to either the 



OUNALASKA. 449 

Oiimak or the Akoutan pass, as containing no hidden dangers and 
safely navigable for all classes of vessels except as when first attempted 
by the " Corwin" when a strong gale was blowing against the current ; 
it was successfully sailed through on the 17th, and at Ounalaska the 
oak sheathing of the ship, which had started, was repaired. The ship 
took in a supply of coal, and purchased from the Alaska Commercial 
Company nine months' extra provisions. 

The natives at Ounalaska were suffering from an epidemic, — pleuro- 
pneumonia, — from which a large part of the population had died, and 
the only physician of the place being dangerously ill, the sick received 
assistance from the surgeon of the "Corwin." The settlement of 
Ounalaska or Illialook is the largest commercial port of the Aleutian 
Islands, and the principal depot of the " Alaska Commercial " and 
the '' Western Fur and Trading " Companies. The town Illialook 
had before this epidemic, a population of three hundred and forty- 
eight souls, only eight of whom were Americans ; one hundred and 
eighteen were Creoles, and two hundred and twenty-two Aleuts. 
There is a resident priest, and a school conducted by one of the 
church officials, but irregularly attended, nor do the parents care 
about any instruction in English for their children. 

Sailing from Ounalaska May 22, the ship reached St. Paul's the day 
following, finding there as at Ounalaska that the preceding winter had 
been mild and the snow light. The thermometer had but once regis- 
tered below zero. From this point Captain Hooper, remembering the 
rough experience of his first cruise when trying to make a northing 
along the east side of Bering Sea, determined to keep if possible to the 
westward of the pack. On the 24th, in lat. 58° 43' N., long. 171° 26' E., 
the temperature of the water fell to 32°, and ice was sighted from the 
deck. Finding it so far south, the " Corwin " shaped her course for 
Cape Thaddeus, Siberia. On the 27th she was at the mouth of Anadir 
Gulf, the wind blowing hard from the northward with a short heavy 
sea running ; the course was shaped for St. Lawrence Island, which 
was found covered with snow and almost surrounded by ice. The 
wretched condition of the inhabitants of this island was first reported 
by the late Captain George W. Bailey of the revenue steamer " Rush," 



450 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

from information received by him at Ounalaska ; he was unable to visit 
them. The fearful decrease of its population has already been 
named in the first cruise of the " Corwin." The facts now learned of 
that suffering were still more distressing. Eight hundred had perished. 
Mr. Nelson now collected one hundred crania for the Smithsonian. 

The natives seemed overjoyed at the return of the ship, firing guns, 
shouting, etc. They came on board in large numbers and reported that 
the weather during the past winter having been mild, they had experi- 
enced no difficulty in supplying themselves with food. 

Taking on board two families who desired to reach the Siberian 
coast, the " Corwin " sailed for Plover Bay, where she first learned 
from Captain Lapham of the whaling barque " Rainbow," news of the 
whaling ships, " Mount WoUaston " and " Vigilant," searched for on a 
former cruise. A report had come from the natives at East Cape and 
other points along the coasts, that a party of Tchuktchis, whilst sealing 
on the ice near Cape Serdze-Kamen, had discovered a wreck believed 
to be one of the whalers. Captain Hooper determined to dispatch a 
sledge party in that direction to make inquiries for the ships and also 
for the " Jeannette." Engaging therefore at Marcus Bay for an inter- 
preter, a native who spoke some English, Hooper steamed through the 
drift-ice and passing Cape Tchaplin, anchored on the 29th on the south, 
side of St. Lawrence Bay. Here an old man gave the most detailed 
story of the wreck of the " Mount Wollaston," which, however, Hooper 
was soon led to believe, was almost entirely manufactured for the sake 
of reward. 

"Finding," says the Captain, "that we could get nothing but lies 
from, the St. Lawrence Bay natives, we steered for the Diomede Islands, 
where again the natives came on board in large numbers and were very 
anxious to trade." One called for whiskey, and upon being told that 
we did not sell whiskey, answered promptly, "I believe you lie." As 
soon as it became known to them that we wished to purchase dogs, a 
raid was made on all the aged, female, and useless dogs of every de- 
scription in the settlement, and boat-load after boat-load arrived until 
we were almost compelled to use force to stop them from bringing the 
animals on board. With the interpreter Joe's assistance, who passed 



nordenskiold's winter quarters. 451 

judgment on them by saying, " That dog no good," or, "This good," the 
required number of the best were selected, and the natives were in- 
formed that no more were wanted, and that the rejected ones must be 
taken out of the ship. This last order Joe proceeded to carry out by 
picking them up by the back and dropping into the boats without 
regard to the howls and snarls of the dogs, or the expostulations of 
their owners. We had succeeded in getting nineteen good dogs with 
two sleds ; paying for all twenty-one sacks of flour. We also bought 
some fur clothing, boots, and some walrus tusks, paying for them in 
tobacco and ammunition." 

May 31 the '' Corwin " made Cape Serdze Kamen, but found a rim 
of ice from five to thirty feet high, extending from two to three miles 
off shore. Communicating with some natives who were out on the ice 
sealing. Hooper engaged one of them to accompany him in quest of 
further information, and went off with him on his sled to the native 
settlement. Here " deer-skins were spread on the ground for us to rest 
on, and a pair of mittens of peculiar make presented to each. We 
visited several of the houses and were received in a most friendly man- 
ner by all their occupants. This settlement is near the wintering- 
place of the 'Yega' in 1878-9. In one of the houses we were shown a 
silver fork and spoon which had been presented to one of the old men 
by Professor Nordenskiold, for whom they all seemed to entertain a 
friendly feeling, and who was called by them ' Captain EnshalL' " 

June 1, leaving this settlement {Tapkan), lat. 69° 28', long. 175° 
10' W., Hooper came to solid ice ahead, and on the starboard-bow, 
showing that he had come to the end of the lead. He was very near 
being nipped in the rapidly closing ice, which, through the thick snow 
could be seen no further than the ship's length ; shortly after midnight 
he was entirely surrounded, and in working out by the engiile, lost 
every pintle of the rudder. Caught in the end of a rapidly closing 
lead, one hundred and twenty miles from open water in a howling gale 
and without a rudder, destruction at first seemed inevitable, but, after 
several hours of hard work, steering by the sails, the ship was got into 
the open lead again and a jury-rudder prepared. Believing that if the 
northerly wind continued it would be but a few hours before the pack 



452 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

would rest against the shore, the " Corwin " steamed slowly to the 
south and ease, for, to have been caught between the pack and shore 
ice would be certain destruction for any vessel, no matter how strongly 
built. Koliutchin Island was soon seen at the distance of about ten 
miles, and a consultation with the natives was held which ended in the 
advice, that the ice was practicable for the sledge party to search for 
the whalers and the " Jeannette." The native consultation had ended 
in a grunt, which Joe interpreted, " He think it pretty good." 

The search party consisted of First Lieutenant Herring, Third 
Lieutenant Reynolds, Coxswain Gessler, and two natives; their out- 
fit included twenty-five dogs, four sleds, one skin boat, one tent, one 
coal-oil stove, and furniture, with five gallons of oil, five skin coats, 
three pair of skin trousers, six pairs seal-skin boots, two deer-skins, and 
two rubber blankets, an aneroid barometer, thermometer, marine glass, 
boat compass, lead, and line, etc., one hatchet, sail needles and twine, 
fifteen yards cotton canvass, a quantity of seal-skin line for securing 
loads to the sledges, one hundred and forty pounds of bread, ten 
pounds of coffee, ten pounds sugar, fifty pounds dried potatoes, eighty 
pounds of pemmican, three rifles, three revolvers, and a shot gan with 
an ab-undance of ammunition. 

Instructions were given to Lieutenant Herring to proceed along the 
coast as far as practicable, communicating with the natives at each 
settlement, and if possible to find the parties who were said to have 
discovered the wrecks, and gather all facts in connection with it that 
could in any way throw light on the fate of the missing whalers or the 
"Jeannette." The party was to return to the "Corwin" at Cape 
Serdze Kamen. 

Seeing them fairly started, the " Corwin " was headed south for 
Plover Bay, Siberia, to repair the rudder. After visiting St. Michael's, 
Norton Sound, Captain Hooper returned to Cape Serdze, and took the 
land excursionists on board. They ha^ been absent twenty-eight 
days, and had been along the Asiatic coast to a place called Cape Wan- 
keram, where they found parties who had boarded the wreck, and 
obtained from them a number of articles taken from it, which were 
afterward identified at San Francisco as belonging, some to the missing 



THE LOST WHALERS. 453 

whaling bark " Vigilant," and others to Captain Nye, of the " Mount 
WoUaston." It would seem that both crews had been on board the 
" Vigilant." It is not unlikely that both vessels being caught, it was 
decided by their captains, who were skilful sailors and men of great 
courage and energy, to unite their forces on the best vessel, and that a 
subsequent break-up of the ice released it, and enabled them to reach 
some point near where the wreck was discovered before again becom- 
ing embayed and lost. 

The statement made by the natives, was that they were out sealing 
on the ice, when, seeing a dark object, they approached it, and it was 
found to be the hull of a vessel, with mast, bulwarks, and boats gone, 
and the hold partly filled with water. In the cabin were four corpses, 
three on the floor and one in a berth. After taking what they could 
carry home, night coming on, they left the wreck, with the intention of 
returning in the . morning ; but during the night, the wind which had 
been from the northward, changed to southwest, and the wreck was not 
seen again, having drifted away or sunk. 

The sledge parties had also met travelling parties of Tchuktchis 
from the vicinity of Cape Yukon, on their way to East Cape, and from 
them learned that no white men had been seen on the coast. These 
people are constantly travelling back and forth, and it would be almost 
impossible for any one landing on the coast to escape their notice 



LANDING ON HERALD ISLAND. - 

July 30, Herald Island was sighted; as the "Corwin" approached, 
the ice became very much heavier, and the difficulty of getting 
through it much greater, but after a good deal of bumping, squeezing, 
and twisting around through narrow crooked leads, and occasionally 
charging through an icy barrier, she succeeded in reaching the island 
at 9.45 p. M., and made fast to the ground ice in ten fathoms of water, 
not more than a cable's length from the shore. This was an improve- 
ment on the four attempts of her first cruise, w^hen she failed to get 
nearer than four miles. The exploration now made is also the first in 
the history of this island. Captain Kellett, R. N., of the " Herald," the 



454 



AlVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



relief ship for Franklin, described it as an inaccessible rock. The 
American party were eager to land as explorers. As soon as the ves- 
sel was made fast, a general rush was made for the shore, each trying to 
be the first to land. The rim of ice was probably one thousand feet in 
width, and full of hollows and hummocks, but after many falls, with 
some narrow escapes from going into the deep crevices which run 
through it in various directions, the shore was reached, and a general 
scramble up the almost perpendicular rocks followed. While this was 




AX ARCTIC EAVINE. 



being done. Professor Muir, an experienced mountaineer, came over the 
ice with an axe in his hand, and reaching the island a few hundred feet 
further north, opposite a bank of frozen snow and ice one hundred feet 
high and standing at an angle of fifty degrees, deliberately commenced 
cutting steps, and ascended the ice cliff, the top of which he soon 
reached without apparent difficulty ; and from this the summit of the 
island was gained by a gradual ascent neither difficult nor dangerous. 
Muir's practised eye had selected the most suitable place for the ascent 
before the ship had been made fast. 

Another party making the attempt for an ascent through a small 
steep ravine up which they climbed, succeeded after several narrow 
escapes from falling rocks, in reaching the top of the ravine, but then 



COLLECTIONS FOR THE SMITHSONIAN. 455 

found that their ascent was scarcely begun, for above them, was a plain 
surface of nearly a thousand feet high, and so steep that the rock which 
covered it, at the slightest touch came thundering to the bottom. 
Hooper had now to interpose his authority, and order a retreat for the 
safety of this party whose descent was made, one at a time, the upper 
ones remaining quiet till the lower ones were out of danger. # 

The top of the island, ordinarily inaccessible, under the skilful 
guidance of Professor Muir, had been thus reached by a large party, 
and everywhere carefully searched for traces of the " Jeannette " and 
missing whalers. All prominent points were carefully examined for 
cairns, but none were found, or anything which would indicate that the 
island had ever before been visited by human beings. 

While the search was being prosecuted by the officers and men from 
the ship. Professor Muir made a collection of plants, studied the geo- 
logical character of the island, and made sketches ; Mr. Nelson devoted 
himself to its natural history. 

The Report of the Smithsonian for 1881 says : " In summing up the 
direct results of Mr. Nelson's work in the North, the unbroken series 
of about twelve thousand meteorological observations must be men- 
tioned first, since to obtain these was the primary object of his resi- 
dence there. In addition to these there were obtained about nine 
thousand ethnological specimens, two thousand one hundred bird 
skins, five hundred mammal skins and skulls, four hundred fishes, and 
various other specimens, beside vocabularies of seven or eight Eskimo 
dialects with accompanying linguistic notes, and a large amount of 
manuscript material upon all the branches in which collections were 
made. Over one hundred photographs of the pejDple and other scenes 
were secured during the last year of his residence in the north. ^ The 
necessary expenses attending this work, outside those appertaining 
strictly to the meteorological work, were met by an allowance from 
the Institution, where the specimens are stored at present awaiting the 
elaboration of the Reports." 

Up to the year 1870, the most extensive and valuable herbarium 



456 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

at the Smithsonian had been the collection of plants made during the 
North Pacific Exploring Expedition, under command of Commanders 
Ringgold and Rodgers (1853 to 1856), by Mr. Charles Wright, an 
accomplished botanist. The collections in every branch of natural 
history, botany, etc., have been of late years largely extended by such 
explorers as Dall and Nelson. (See Smithsonian Reports.) 

Notwithstanding the bleak and barren appearance of the island, at 
a distance of a few miles on its summit were found a number of species 
of plants, while every rocky projection on the cliffs seemed covered 
with nesting birds, gulls, etc. ; on the summit snow buntings were fly- 
ing merrily from rock to rock. 

On the top of the east end, over a thousand feet above the sea, was 
a bed of turfy moss about one hundred yards in extent, and from three 
to four feet in depth, containing a number of holes, which at first 
resembled the tracks of some hoofed animal, but which upon closer 
examination proved to be burrows of the white fox. 

" The entire island is a mass of granite, with the exception of a patch 
of metamorphic slate near the centre, and no doubt owes its existence, 
with so considerable a height, to the superior resistance this granite 
offers to the degrading action of the northern ice sheet, traces of which 
are plainly shown. Standing as it does alone out on the Polar Sea, it 
IS a fine glacial monument. The island is about six miles long by two 
wide ; its greatest height as shown by an accurately tested barometer 
is one thousand two hundred feet." 

From the summit a good view was offered of Wrangell Land, the mag- 
netic bearing of its extremity being given by Professor Muir as south 
40° ; west and south 70° ; west or south 62° 26' ; west and north 86° 
34' N. (true). The contour of the eastern end of the land was clearly 
defined as about forty miles distant, but further away, on its north side 
a blue line appeared above the horizon which Muir supposed to be land 
extending in that direction. To the party who reached the summit all 
sense of fatigue vanished, for the midnight sun was shining with gleam- 
ing splendor, coloring all the waste of the ice, sea, and granite. " The 
hour," says Muir, " which I spent alone was one of the most impressive 
of my life, and I would fain have watched here all the strange night, 



kellett's ckuise. 457 

but under the Captain's charge, hastened to begin my return journey at 
one in the morning, after taking the compass bearings of the principal 
points within sight on Wrangell Land." 

While the exploration on the island was going on, the " Corwin " 
steamed around to the north side in a clear lead between the grounded 
and the drift ice, and made an examination of the shore, line. At 
2.30 A. M. all hands having returned to the vessel, she cast off' from the 
ground-ice and steamed through the drift, toward clear water, which 
was reached about 6.30 A. M. The " Corwin " was also the first to land 
here ; the first of explorers to approach, indeed, very near this island, 
the bearings of which were afterward so fully determined by Lieutenant 
Berry, U. S.N., of the "Rodgers." The fact of its being an island of 
small extent has an important relation to our knowledge of the ice bar- 
riers; the harbor, of which mention will be hereafter made, may prove 
a refuge to the whalers ; but possibly, a temptation to some to remain 
too long in the Arctic. 

EARLY NOTES OF WRANGELL LAND. 

The first notice of this land has already been adverted to in the 
account of the Exploring Expedition of Lieutenant (late Admiral) 
Rodgers, U. S. N., 1855. In the "Reported Dangers of the Pacific 
Ocean," compiled by Mr. E. R. Knorr of the U. S. Hydrographic 
Office, will be found the following notice : — 

"The existence of extensive land northwest of Bering's Straits, 
which had been reported forty years ago by the Tchuktchis of Cape 
Jakan to Lieutenant (now Admiral) Wrangell of the Russian Navy, 
has been placed beyond doubt by the recent discoveries of Captain 
Long and Captain Raynor. It is very important in the interest of 
whalers as well as for the promotion of geographical knowledge to 
obtain all the information of it which fair opportunity (so rare in that 
latitude) may place within the reach of whaling-masters when near 
that ground. 

" Captain (now Admiral) Kellett, of H. B. M.'s ship ' Herald,' when 
in search for Sir John Franklin in 1849, discovered, and landed on 
Herald Island, and cruising in that vicinity for a few days in very rough 



458 a:sierica^ explorations in the ice zones. 

weather, believed he saw another island, named by him Plover, and 
also more extensive land which he thought to be the land reported hy 
Admiral Wrangell. 

" Lieutenant (now Rear-Admiral) John Rodgers, U. S. N., while 
commanding the U. S. North Pacific Survey Expedition in 1855, en- 
deavored, in the flag-ship ' Vincennes,' to verify these discoveries ; he 
also landed on Herald Island (the southeast end of which was found 
to be in lat. 71° 21' N., and long. 175° 39' W.), and evidently pene- 
trated further to the northward and to the westward than Admiral 
Kellett had done, but, although favored most of the time by beautifully 
clear weather, he could not see smj land or any appearance of land, 
except Herald Island. The land enumerated then shown on the 
British charts (but now omitted) was conclusively proved not to exist, 
as the 'Vincennes' anchored over night in lat. 72° 02' 27", long. 174° 
37' W., where, on the following morning, with a horizon clear for a 
radius of at least thirty miles, "no land was in sight. To the west of 
Herald Island, the progress of the 'Vincennes ' was barred by field ice 
when about seven miles from the position assigned to Plover Island, 
which surely would have been seen if existing. Subsequently the 
position of Wrangell Land was approached from the southeast to 
within a few miles, when again an impenetrable barrier of packed ice 
was met with: very thick weather also had set in, in the meantime, 
which prevailed for more than a week, thus preventing the discoveries 
which twelve years afterward were made but thirty miles north of the 
'Vincennes' track." 

THE FIE ST AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT. 

Captain Long, of the whaling barque " Nile," in 1867 gave the first 
authentic account of the land in question. After making its southwest 
point in long. 178° 30' E., he sailed along the south coast for two days, 
until he made what he believed to be the southeast point in lat. 70° 
40' N., and long. 178° 57' W., when he turned south toward the straits. 
But Captain Raynor of the '' Keindeer " having also fallen in with 
that land at nearly the same time, and placed the southwest point 
in lat. 70° 50' N., and long. 178° 15' E., states the southeast point to be 



CAPTAINS LONG AND RAYNOR. 459 

in lat. 71° 10' N., and long. 176° 40' W. (more than two degrees further 
east-northeast than Long's position) from whence, he says, the coast 
turns first northwestward for fifteen or twenty miles, then northeast, 
and higher up apparently northeastward. The southeast point of Cap- 
tain Long, named by him Cape Hawaii, therefore is, in all probability, 
the south point, from which the land bends to northward and then 
again eastward to the southeast point of Captain Ray nor, from whence 
it turns to the mountains which are shown on the charts as seen from 
the " Herald." Captain Bliven, of the " Nautilus," reports to have 
seen land to the northeast of Herald Island as high as lat. 72° 00' N. 
The land, according to Captain Long's description, presents the featui^es 
of the opposite Asiatic coast. Table mountains separated by valleys, 
ascend directly from the shore to a considerable elevation ; the middle 
one, apparently, a volcano, he estimated to be two thousand four hun- 
dred and eighty feet high ; he believes he had seen verdure and a large 
black place on the slope of one of the hills resembling coal ; and he 
concludes that the land is inhabited, or that at least reindeer may be 
found there. Captain Ray nor, on the contrary, states that to him the 
coast, which was nearly straight, with high, rugged cliffs, appeared to 
be entirely barren. 

The full report of Captains Long and Raynor first appeared in the 
" Honolulu Commercial Advertiser " in November, 1867. It is here 
given to the credit of our Merchant Marine. The "Advertiser" says: 
" One of the most interesting items that we have learned from the 
whalemen who have cruised in the Arctic Ocean the past summer is 
the discovery of extensive land in the middle of that ocean, which may 
yet prove to be a Polar continent. The existence of this land has long 
been known, but owing to the impassable ice barred along its shores, 
of its extent and character nothing very definite has been known until 
this season. Baron Wrangell, the famous Russian explorer, first com- 
municated to the world the knowledge of its existence as he learned it 
from the Siberian Indians, and it is simply marked on most Arctic 
charts 'extensive highland.' 

"It should be stated that the past summer has been the mildest 
and most favorable for whaling ever known by oldest whalemen. One 



460 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

master says that he did not see a piece of ice as large as his hand till he 
reached the straits, and even beyond that, up to 72°, the sea was gener- 
ally free from floating ice. The weather, for the most part, has been 
exceedingly mild, with southerly winds prevailing, which has tended to 
melt the ice or drive it northward. As a result of the favorable state 
of the ocean and weather, the ships have gone further north this sum- 
mer than ever before, some having reached as high as lat. 73° 30'. 

" Captain Long, of the barque ' Mle,' who seems to have examined 
the land most attentively, having cruised along the entire southern 
coast, has drawn a sketch of its appearance. It is quite elevated and 
near the centre has an extinct crater cone which he estimated to be two 
thousand four hundred and eighty feet high. He named it Wrangell's 
Land, after the noted Russian explorer. The west point he named 
Cape Thomas; the southwest point Cape Hawaii. The names given 
by Captain Long are so very appropriate that we doubt not Geograph- 
ical Societies of Europe and America will adopt them, and call this 
land Wrangell Land. Captain Long has prepared for us an account of 
this interesting discovery, which we insert here : — 

" Ho^'OLULU, Nov. 5, 1867. 

" Sir : During my cruise in the Arctic Ocean I saw land not laid 
down on any chart that I have seen. This land was first seen from the 
barque ' Nile,' on the evening of the 14th of August, and the next day 
at 9.30 A.M., the ship was eighteen miles distant from the west point. 
I had good observations this day, and made the west point to be in 
lat. 70° 46' N., and long. 178° 30' E. The lower part of the land was 
entirely free from snow and had a green appearance, as if covered with 
vegetation. There was broken ice between the ship and land, but as 
there was no indication of whales, I did not feel justified in endeavoring 
to work through it and reach the shores, which I think could have 
been done without much danger. We sailed to the eastward along the 
land during the 15th, and part of the 16th, and in some places ap- 
proached it as near as fifteen miles. 

" On the 16th the weather was very clear and pleasant, and we had 
a good view of the middle and eastern portion. Near the centre or 



long's account. 461 

about in long. 180°, there is a mountain which has the appearance of an 
extinct volcano. By approximate measurement I found it to be two 
thousand four hundred and eighty feet high. I had excellent observa- 
tions on the 16th, and made the southeastern cape, which I have named 
Cape Hawaii, to be in lat. 70° 40' K, and long. 178° 51' W. It is im- 
possible to tell how far this land extends northward, but as far as the 
eye could reach we could see ranges of mountains until they were lost 
in the distance ; and I learn from Captain Bliven of the ship " Nautilus,'* 
that he saw land northwest of Herald Island, as far north as lat. 72°. 

" From the appearance of the land as we saw it, I feel convinced 
that it is inhabited, as there were large numbers of walrus in this 
vicinity; and the land appeared more green than the main coast of 
Asia, and quite as capable of supporting man as the coast from Point 
Barrow to the Mackenzie River, or the northern parts of Greenland, 
which are in a much higher latitude. There is a cape a little to the 
westward of Cape Jakan which has a very singular appearance. On 
the summit and along the slopes of this promontory there is an immense 
number of upright and prostrate columns — some having the appear- 
ance of pyramids, others like obelisks ; some of them with the summit 
larger than the base. The character of the surrounding country, which 
was rolling with no abrupt declivities, made these objects appear more 
singular. They were not in one continuous mass but scattered over a 
large surface, and in clusters of fifteen or twenty yards with intervals 
of several hundred yards between them. While at anchor near tliis 
place. Captain Phillips, of the ' Monticello,' came on board and drew 
my attention to a large black place on the slope of one of the hills, and 
said he thought it was coal. We examined it with the telescope, and it 
had a very distinct appearance of coal. It glistened in the sun and 
appeared like a large surface which had been used as a deposit for 
coal. It was about one and a half miles in length, and one half mile in 
breadth, the country surrounding it being covered with vegetation. 
From 175° to 170° east there were no indications of animal life in the 
water. We saw no seals, walrus, whales, or animalculae in the water. 
It appeared almost as blue as it does in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 
although there was but from fifteen to eighteen fathoms in any place 



462 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

within forty miles of the land. I think the position I have assigned to 
this land will be found correct, as Mr. Flitner examined my chronometer 
on my arrival and found it only one and a half miles in error. 

" I have named this northern land Wrangell Land as an appropriate 
tribute to the memory of a man who spent three consecutive years 
north of lat. 69°, and demonstrated the problem of this open Polar Sea 
forty-five years ago, although others of much later date have en- 
deavored to claim the merit of this discovery. The west cape of this 
land I have named Cape Thomas, from the man who first reported the 
land from the masthead of my ship, and the southeastern cape I have 
named after the largest island in this group. As this report has been 
hurriedly prepared, I would wish to make more extended observations 
on the subject, which may be of benefit to other cruisers in this 
direction, if you will allow me room in your paper on some future 
occasion. " Yours very truly, 

"Thomas Long." 

The "Advertiser" observes: "The next interesting inquiry relates 
to its extent. As near as we can learn, after diligent inquiry no one 
landed anywhere on it, though several coasted within a few miles of it. 
The southern shore runs a distance of about one hundred miles east and 
west. How far it extends north is at present only a matter of conjecture. 

"Captain Bliven, while cruising near Herald Island, lat. 71^ 20' N., 
long. 175° W., and distant about eighty miles from the southeast 
point of Wrangell Land, saw the mountain range extending to the 
northwest as far as the eye could reach. He thinks it not improbable 
that it extends north several hundred miles. If so, it would appear to 
be of great extent, perhaps sufficient to be termed a continent. By 
taking a chart of the Arctic Ocean, and marking the land from the 
points named above, it will be found to be about seventy miles from 
the Siberian coast. The straits between the two shores are usually 
blocked with ice, but this season they have been quite clear. Captain 
Long thinks that a propeller might readily have steamed far up north 
either on the west or east side of this land, and made full discoveries 
regarding its extent and character. 



THE ICE BARRIER, LONG. 170° W. 463 

" The following letter from Captain Raynor contains some additional 
particulars relating to the northerly current past Herald Island, a cir- 
cumstance noticed by several masters, and which tends to confirm the 
opinion that the newly discovered land extends some distance to the 
north. In the channel north of Herald Island the sea was clear of ice 
as far north as the eye could reach from the vessel that went furthest 
into it.'' 

raynor' S LETTER. 

"Honolulu, Nov. 1, 1867. 
''Mr. Whitney, 

" Sir : In compliance with your request, I send a short account of a 
large tract of land, lying in the midst of the Arctic Ocean, hitherto 
but little known. This land has heretofore been considered to be two 
islands, one of which is marked on the English charts as Plover Island, 
which is laid down to the west-southwest of Herald Island. The other 
is simply marked ' extensive land with high peaks.' On my last cruise 
I sailed along on the south and east side of this island for a considerable 
distance three different times, and once cruised along the entire shore, 
and by what I considered reliable observations, made the extreme 
southwest cape to lie in north lat. 70° 50', and east long. 178" 10'. The 
southeast cape I found to be in north lat. 71° 10', and west long. 176° 
46'. The south coast appears to be nearly straight, with high, rugged 
cliffs, and entirely barren. The northeast coast I have not examined 
to any extent, but it appears to run from the southeast cape for twenty 
miles, and then turns to the north and northeast. I learned from Cap- 
tain Bliven that he had traced it much further north, and has seen 
others who traced it to north of lat. 72°. I think there is no doubt that 
it extends much further to the north, and that there is another island to 
the east of it, say in long. 170° west and to the northwest of Poj.nt Bar- 
row, with a passage between it and the land I have just described. My 
reason for thinking so is this : we always find ice to the south of the 
known land further to the south than we do to the eastward of it. The 
current runs to the northwest from one to three knots an hour. 

'' In the longitude of 170° west, we always find the ice barrier from 
fifty to eighty miles further south than we do between that and Herald 



464 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Island, and there is always a strong current setting to the northwest 
between these localities, unless prevented by strong northerly gales (for 
in such shoal water as the Arctic Ocean, the currents are changed easily 
by the winds) which would indicate that there is a passage in that direc- 
tion, where the waters pass between two bodies of land that hold the 
ice, the one known, and the other unknown. 

I would add that the southwest cape of this island described above^ 
lies seventy-five miles distant from the Asiatic or Siberian coast. 

" Yours very truly, 

"George W. Raynor, 

" Master of ship ' Reindeer.'' '* 

The land thus referred to was now first reached and explored by 
the U. S. Revenue Cutter "Corwin," August 11. The atmosphere was 
perfectly clear, and the land in plain sight about thirty miles distant, 
covering an arc of the horizon from northwest to north-northeast true. 
Sketches and bearings of prominent points were taken, but the first 
attempt at a nearer approach was unsuccessful. " Good observations 
for latitude and longitude, confirmed by subsequent bearings and obser- 
vations taken off the east coast, showed the land on the American 
Hydrographic Chart to be laid down eighteen miles too far south, 
although the general trend of the coast is very nearly correct. 



A volunteer party consisting of the Lieutenant, the Professor, Assist- 
ant Engineer Owens, Mr. Nelson, the botanist, and the Coxswain, 
Gessler, now eagerly volunteered to land, but the fog and mist rapidly 
shutting down, and the uncertainty of the ship holding her position in 
the lead kept them back until the following day, when at 7.30 A. M. 
anchor was dropped within a cable's length of the land in five fathoms 
of water. A landing was then effected, and the American flag raised 
in token of possession and ownership by the United States of America 
under the name of "New Columbia." The island had heretofore 
appeared on some charts as Wrangell Land, and on others as Kellett 



i P 

I « 

E CO 

n S 

H 

1 H 




466 AIMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Land. The point of landing was at the most eastern part of the island ; 
it was the spot most likely to be reached by any one trying to make 
a landing on that coast, forty-five miles from Herald Island. In clear 
weather it is in plain sight. 

The river where the " Corwin " anchored, lat. 71° 04', long. 177° 40' 
W., was named Clark Kiver, in honor of Major E. W. Clark, the chief 
of the U. S. Revenue Marine. It was about one hundred yards wide, 
and deep and rapid, and from the top of the cliffs near by, it could 
be seen extending back into the mountains a distance of forty 
miles. The mountains devoid of snow, and seen under very favor- 
able circumstances through a rift in the clouds, appeared brown and 
naked. 

The stay on shore was necessarily short on account of the strong 
northerly current which was sweeping the ice pack along with irresist- 
ible force. At 9.30 A. M., being unable to hold her position any longer, 
the ship commenced to work out toward the lead which was reached at 
11 A. M. " We examined the shore line with our glasses while ap- 
proaching and leaving the land north and south, and saw nothing but 
perpendicular hills of slate from one to three hundred feet high, the 
sloping bank of the river being the only place for miles where a party 
travelling over the ice would be able to effect a landing. 

"No time had been lost in sending out parties to examine the shore 
line, and all prominent points, while the more distant ones were care- 
fully scanned with the glasses for signs of human life, past or present, 
but nothing was seen." 

Captain Hooper says : " This is undoubtedly the part of the land 
seen by Captain Kellett, R. N., in 1849, when he discovered and landed 
on Herald Island, and which since appeared on the Britisji Admiralty 
charts as Plover Island, although erroneously laid down somewhat 
further to the eastward. We now know that Plover Island has no 
separate existence, and that what Kellett saw was the main island." 

In reference to the name of " New Columbia," " it was suggested by 
the name previously given to the islands further west — 'New Siberia,' 
and it was believed that the bearing of two names was calculated to 
create confusion, and that the newly appropriated name being of a 



RETURN OF THE " COR WIN." 467 

national character would imply no disrespect to the memory or give 
offence to the gallant officers whose names it bore, but who had not 
landed on it." The terms of the Treaty of 1869 between the United 
States and Russia would seem to debar possession by the United States 
of these barren islands ; the question, involving the right of discovery, 
has not, as yet, been mooted between the two Governments. 



WRANGELL LAND AN ISLAND. 

The discovery that it is an island of limited extent is to be accredited 
to Commander DeLong, who drifted in the " Jeannette " in the winter 
of 1879-80 across the meridians embraced within its extremes, and in 
plain sight. It will probably occur to the reader that the early reports 
by Long and Eaynor, as well as those of Kellett, were largely the 
foundation of the hope of finding it a continent. 

From this first exploration of Wrangell L^^nd, Captain Hooper 
crossed over to Point Barrow, where he found a part of the crew of the 
whaler " Daniel Webster," whose Captain, not having been familiar 
with Arctic navigation, had remained in a lead just half an hour, long 
enough to have his ship crushed. Nine of the crew who had escaped 
to the shore were taken aboard the " Corwin," others having gone over- 
land to Icy Cape. 

August 24, the cutter had again made a distance of six hundred 
miles, arriving in Plover Bay where was found the " Golden Fleece," 
with Lieutenant Ray of the U. S. A. Signal Service, on his way to 
establish a meteorological station at Point Barrow. 

On the 27th the " Corwin " sailed to the northward, and soon after 
again sighted the blue peaks of Wrangell Land, standing along the ice 
pack from which she neared Herald Island, but in a fierce gale that 
lasted several days, lost her iron ice-breaker, and, as the oak sheathing 
which had protected the soft Oregon plank around her bows, was also 
entirely gone, the Captain could not again venture into the ice. After 
cruising eastward into the vicinity of Kotzebue Sound and Hotham 
Inlet, and at St. Michael's, receiving on board a second party of ship- 



468 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

wrecked men, the cutter was on her way to San Francisco where she 
arrived October 21, 1881. 

When drawing up his full report of this cruise, after the reception of 
the news in the United States of the " Jeannette " and the " Rodgers," 
Hooper concludes : " I cannot refrain from making a brief reference to 
the fate of one of the objects of our search, the 'Jeannette,' and her 
officers and crew. The heart-rending details of that sad affair are too 
fresh in the minds of all to require repetition here, but I desire to 
express my profound sorrow for their misfortunes, over which all the 
civilized world grieves, and my unbounded admiration for their forti- 
tude, and their heroic exertions in making the most remarkable retreat 
over the ice ever made by man, from the place where the vessel sank to 
the Lena Delta ; for their brave straggle for existence after reaching 
the land, and their cheerful resignation to fate when death in its most 
awful form stared them in the face and claimed them one by one. The 
diary of Captain DeLong, written almost as he drew his last breath, 
relates acts of heroism and self-sacrifice which are not excelled in the 
annals of history. Not the least of them was the devotion of the faith- 
ful Alexai, an Innuit from St. Michael's, going out almost daily in 
search of game, freezing and starving as he was, but bringing the 
small amount secured to the commanding officer to be distributed 
fairly to every one of the party, and at night, with the temperature at 
zero, or perhaps lower, taking off his seal-skin robe to cover his beloved 
captain. Surely when the final summing-up shall be made in the list 
of heroes who have laid down their lives for the benefit of their fellow- 
men, the name of Alexai will not be forgotten." 

Captain Hooper refers also in like terms to the courageous and 
noble efforts of Master C. F. Putnam, U. S. N., of the " Rodgers," of 
whose loss on the ice floe the sad intelligence had been received. 

The official report of this cruise, still on the files of the Treasury 
Department, will be found to embrace discussions on several topics, such 
as the currents and the ice of the Arctic Sea, the habits and character 
of the Innuits, and others within the general tenor of his instructions 
but outside of the narrative furnished by the ship's log. Some points 
were visited not heretofore described by any other Arctic navigator. 



THE RELIEF SHIPS. 473 

As an additional illustration of the utter uncertainty of ice-navigation 
in the Arctic Seas and of the currents therein, it may be here mentioned 
that in his preliminary report of the cruise made up before receiving 
news of the '' Jeannette," he had stated his own conclusions while in 
the " Arctic," that the ill-fated ship had probably drifted to the north- 
east, and recommended that a vessel be sent to Melville Island, and 
another to Prince Patrick Land for her relief; but it will be remembered 
in this connection how early in the voyage of the " Jeannette," DeLong 
was compelled to record his abandonment of the hope of his being- 
carried northeast, and his entire submission to the facts, against all theo- 
ries, that the Arctic currents are the results of local prevailing windj> 
only. Of this, Captain Hooper also states his own like experience 
during these two cruises, in which he sailed over twelve thousand miles, 
making thorough search of both the American and Asiatic shores, for 
tidings of the lost whalers and the exploring steamer " Jeannette." 



The Spring of 1881 brought no further news of the " Jeannette." 
The United States Congress received a number of petitions, asking that 
the Navy Department should send out a relief ship, and President Gar- 
field was forcibly addressed for the same object by the President of the 
American Geographical Society, Hon. Judge C. P. Daly of New York. 
In the Act making an appropriation for the Civil expenses of the 
Government, approved March 3, 1881, the sum of $175,000 was ap- 
propriated "to enable the Secretary of the Navy immediately to charter 
or purchase, equip and supply a vessel for the prosecution of a search 
for the steamer ' Jeannette,' and such other vessels as might be found 
to need assistance during said cruise ; provided that the vessel be 
wholly manned by volunteers from the navy." This last clause as 
appears by a letter from the late Commodore Jeffers, Chief of the 
Bureau of Ordnance, was designed by Congress to emphasize its view 
that the new expedition should have no other object than to search for, 
and if necessary, relieve the missing party; it was not to winter in the 
ice unless unavoidable. The cruise of the "Rodgers" was thus limited. 



474 AINIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The first duty devolved upon Secretary Hunt was to obtain a 
suitable vessel, and equip and dispatch her to the Arctic regions in 
season to prosecute a search before severe winter should set in. There 
was no time left to charter or purchase and send round a vessel from 
the Atlantic coast, but the Department succeeded in finding at San 
Francisco the " Mary and Helen," already named in the cruise of the 
" Corwin," a new and strong Arctic Steam Whaler. She was purchased 
for the sum of $100,000. The ship had been built specially for Arctic 
navigation, was fast under canvas, with a speed of eight knots under 
steam ; the propeller was not made to hoist, or the rudder to be readily 
unshipped, but these parts were specially strong. 

March 12, 1881, the Secretary ordered a board of Naval officers to 
discuss and report upon the direction of the Search Expedition, the 
best means adapted to it, and its details. The board was composed of 
the late Rear Admiral John Eodgers, whose Arctic expedition north of 
Bering Strait has been narrated ; Captain J. A. Greer, Lieutenant 
Commander H. C. White, and Lieutenant R. M. Berry, officers of the 
"Tigress" in the search for Captain Hall; Lieutenant W. P. Randall; 
Paymaster A. S. Kenny ; Surgeon J. S. Kidder. Convened at the Navy 
Department, March 14, the Board made a thorough investigation, dis- 
cussing, with the help of many persons who had been engaged in the 
whaling service and of other experts on Arctic subjects, the whole 
subject committed to them, and submitting a full report March 26^ 
(Report of Secretary of Navy, November 28, 1881.) 

The chief points of this paper as regards the search were, that as the 
purpose of Captain DeLong had been clearly expressed to land at Herald 
Island and Wrangell Land and leave cairns on each, and as the Arctic 
Sea is too vast to be explored with any rational hope of success in find- 
ing the vessels except on some definite information, the missing ex- 
plorers should be sought for at the points named ; not, however, with the 
clear expectation of finding the cairns, but with the possibility of res- 
cuing lost crews. The Board added a suggestion for a search on the north 
east Asiatic coast, citing from a letter from DeLong, dated July 17, 1879, 
that, in event of disaster to the ship, he would retreat on the Siberian 
settlements to the natives around East Cape, and wait for a chance to get 



THE ADVISORY BOARD. 475 

back to St. Michael's. Their opinion of the unlikelihood of cairns being 
found on the islands named, was founded chiefly on the testimony of 
Captain Bernard Cogan, an experienced master of a whaling ship, who 
explicitly stated that on the 4th of September, 1879, when the ice was 
seen by him rising ten or twelve feet out of the water, its estimated 
thickness one hundred feet, hummocky and thus showing that the 
currents were powerful, the " Jeannette " steamed right into the pack, 
and was seen enclosed in it and going out of sight with it. The testi- 
mony furnished by Professor C. Abbe and Lieutenant A. W. Greely of 
the Signal Service was to the point that the winter of 1879-80 was one of 
unusual severity, the natives reporting that no winter of such severity 
had ever been known by them. The mean temperature north of Bering 
Strait reported by the officers of the Signal Service at St. Michael's was 
for the months of January and February, on an average thirteen degrees 
below zero. The winds in that region were between west, southwest and 
north-northwest, and the average would be very near west-northwest — 
a remarkable contrast with the actual experience of the average east- 
southeast and southeast winds of the " Jeannette." Professor Dall, of 
the United States Coast Survey, whose opinion in regard to the currents 
of the Bering Strait and the Arctic Sea has been heretofore quoted, 
stated that on his previous visit to that region in one of the vessels of 
the Coast Survey he had expected to find a permanent current setting 
northward during the summer through the strait, but his observations 
showed that the current varied with the tides; that the tides were 
irregular, causing irregular currents, the warm water passing through 
the strait seeming to divide into three branches, one going westward, 
another to the northwest, and a third to the northeast ; this being 
indicated more by the melting of ice than by the strength of current. 
Whaling ships are lost in the Arctic every season ; two chief losses 
being that of thirty-three at one time, and thirteen at another, within 
the last ten years. The whole shore at Point Belcher is covered 
with wreckage for miles and miles. 

The examination of other experts by the Board were chiefly as in 
the case of Mr. Kennan, Arctic Explorer of Washington, D. C, on the 
points of sledge travel, aid from the natives of the Arctic shores, and 
other like topics. 



476 AMEEICAN EXPLOKATIONS IX THE ICE ZONES. 

May 20, Secretary Hunt instructed Lieutenant Berry, who had 
been placed in command of the *■' Helen and Mar}^," now named the 
"Rodgers," in compliment to the President of the Naval Board, that he 
should sail as soon as the ship was fuU}^ ready, and pursue, as nearly 
as practicable, the course recommended. The Secretary closed his let- 
ter with the words, '' The eyes of your fellow-countrymen, of the scien- 
tific men of all the world, and especially those interested in Arctic 
Exploration, will follow you anxiously on jonv way through the un- 
known seas to which you go. May Heaven guard and bless you and 
your officers and men, and crown your heroism with success and 
glory." 

The " Rodgers " was commissioned on the 30th of the month, and 
in all the departments of the Navy Yard at Mare Island, Cal., was com- 
pleted ready for sea. She was reported by the Commandant of the 
Yard, Commodore T. S. Phelps, as thoroughly strengthened, her ma- 
chinery thoroughly overhauled and put in order, and her engines and 
appliances found entirely satisfactory on their trial under steam. In 
addition to the ver}^ large amount of stores and pemmican purchased 
from the remainder of the " Jeannette " Search Expedition appropria- 
tion, the ship had received three years' full Navy rations, the supply on 
board being considered ample for thirty-five officers and men for five 
years. The commandant further reported that in the " Rodgers' " fit- 
ness for the Arctic cruise, she had never been surpassed or perhaps 
equalled by any vessel equipped for the Arctic Regions. The ship sailed 
from San Francisco, June 16, with a complement of officers, all of whom 
were volunteers,* viz. : Masters H. S. Waring and C. F. Putnam, En- 

* Officers' Naval Record : — 

Lieutenant Robert M. Berry, Commanding. Acting-Midshipman, Jan. 31, 1862; grad- 
uated, June 1, 1866; Ensign, March 12, 1868; Master, March 26, 1869; Lieutenant, 
March 21, 1870. 

Howard S. Waring, Executive Officer and Navigator. Midshipman, June 26, 1867; grad- 
uated, June 1, 1872; Ensign, July 5, 1873; Master (Junior Lieutenant), July 12, 1878. 

Charles F. Putnam. Midshipman, June 24, 1869; graduated, May 31, 1873; Ensign, July 
16, 1874; Master (Junior Lieutenant), March 12, 1880; lost on the ice of St. Lawrence 
Bay in endeavoring to render aid to his shipwrecked comrades, Jan. 11, 1882. 

Henry J. Hunt. Midshipman, June 23, 1870; graduated, June 21, 1875; Ensign, Sept. 30, 
1876; Lieutenant (Junior grade). March 11, 1883. 



THE SEARCH ON WRANGELL ISLAND. 477 

signs H. J. Hunt and G. M. Stoney, Surgeons M. D. Jones and J. D. 
Castillo, Engineer A. V. Zane, and Pay Clerk W. H. Gilder formerly 
of the Schwatka Expedition. Of the volunteer crew numbering twenty- 
six, selected with great care, F. F. Melm had also been with Lieutenant 
Schwatka. The ship arrived at Petropaulovski in thirty-three days, 
and found in port the Russian corvette " Streloch " with instructions 
from her Government to offer any needed assistance. At St. Lawrence 
Bay, Berry took on board two Tchuktchis as hunters and dog drivers, 
and August 20, entered the Arctic Ocean ; thence touching at Cape 
Serdze, and learning there that the " Corwin " had already visited the 
point, he headed for Herald Island, and made a partial search there for 
tidings of the missing whalers, the boat party being compelled by the 
surf to return to the ship. 

The "Rodgers" next succeeded in dropping anchor in six fathoms 
of water about half a mile from shore on the southern coast of Wrangell 
Land west of Cape Hawaii, and finding a small harbor at the mouth of 
the lagoon, was moved in. Three search parties were then organized 
for traces of the missing explorers, one under Master S. H. Waring and 
Surgeon Castillo, a second under Ensign Hunt and Engineer Zane, the 
third under Captain Berry, accompanied by Surgeon Jones. The first 
party found a cairn in which Surgeon Rosse of the " Corwin " had left 
a dispatch August 12 ; bringing it on board they left a copy in the 
cairn. The boat of this party was imprisoned by the pack, compelling 
them to return to the ship across the ice ; it was recovered afterward 
outside of the bay to which it had been carried by the ice-drift. The 
second party skirted the coast to the southward, westward, and north- 
ward, while the third under Berry penetrated the interior twenty 
miles in a northwest by north direction. Berry ascended a mountain 
near the centre of the island, one peak of which was found by barometric 

Oeorge P. Stoney. Midshipman, Sept. 21, 1870; graduated, Sept. 17, 1875; Ensign, Oct. 

9, 1876; Lieutenant (Junior), June 25, 1883. 
Meredith D. Jones. Assistant Surgeon, May 17, 1871; Passed-Assistant Surgeon, Feb. 

6, 1875. 
A. V. Zane. Cadet Engineer, Oct. 1, 1871; graduated, May 31, 1874; Assistant Engineer, 

Feb. 26, 1875; Passed-Assistant Engineer, Aug. 23, 1881. 
J. D. Castillo. Assistant Surgeon, July 6, 1880; resigned, Oct. 1, 1883. 



478 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

measurement to be two thousand five hundred feet high — a remarkable 
confirmation of the estimate made by Captain Long of the whaling 
barque " Nile," 1867, who sailed along the south coast for two da3's as 
has been related in the Second Cruise of the " Corwin." His estimated 
height of this peak will be found on the circumpolar chart (pocket of 
this volume) to have been two thousand four hundred and eighty feet. 
The day was very clear, but no land, except Herald Island was visible 
from the summit. The whole coast line, except a few miles of outlying 
sand spits, was examined, but Berry found it impossible to believe 
that any of the missing parties had landed there. The thorough ex- 
amination of the coast Avas a second determination of that made prev- 
iously by the ill-fated " Jeannette," that Wrangell Land is an island 
instead of a part of the supposed Arctic Continent. It is about seventy 
miles long, east and west, and thirty-five miles broad, including the 
sand-spits which make out from six to ten miles from the north and 
the south coast. A range of high hills extends completely around the 
island near the coast line, and a lower range from east to west near the 
centre. The whole island is a succession of peaks and valleys. Several 
streams were found, the largest of which, rising near the centre peak 
(Berry's), flows into the sea in an easterly magnetic direction. 

In " Hydrographic Notice," No. 84, of 1881, Commodore De Kraft 
says : " The harbor was found to be small but excellent, of mod- 
erate depth of water. It is situated in the southeastern part of the 
island, and is formed by a bight in the coast-line just east of a pro- 
jecting promontory. Protected on the south by a low neck of sand 
and pebbles, it is a little more than two hundred yards in extent either 
way, with a depth of from three to three and a half fathoms in the 
centre. Three fathoms can be carried close to the shore on the south 
side, and two and two and a half fathoms close to the bluff, on the 
north side. There are no hidden dangers. The observation spot, near 
the western extremity of the low, sandy neck, is in lat. 70° 57' N., long. 
178° 10' W. Magnetic variation 20° E. Kise and fall of tide five feet ; 
flood tide sets to the southward and westward. . . . 

" The ' Rodgers ' left Wrangell Island on the 13th of September,, 
and, after making an ineffectual attempt to land on Herald Island to 



berry's cruise. 481 

complete its examination, steamed to the northward until stopped, 
September 17, by an impenetrable pack in lat. 73° 9' N., long. 174° W., 
when, it being dark, and having made only fifteen miles after working 
all day, the ship was made fast to a floe for the night. New ice was 
formed during the night, cementing the floes together, and when, at 
3 A.M. on the morning of the 18th, an attempt was made ta reach a 
lead about one hundred yards distant, it required an hour and fifteen 
minutes steaming at full speed to accomplish it, after which the pack 
was skirted to the northeastward until, having reached lat. 73° 44' N., 
long. 171° 48' W., it was found impossible to proceed any farther in 
that direction. From this position no indications of land could be 
seen from the crow's nest, but, on the contrary, the soundings in- 
variably deepened as the vessel proceeded north. It was therefore 
thought best, as the main pack trended well to the southward of east 
from this point, to return to the northeast point of Wrangell Island, 
and proceed thence in a northwesterly direction in search of the high 
land reported by Captain Smith, of the whaling barque " New Bedford," 
as "situated in long. 178° W., and extending as far north of the 
seventy-third parallel as the eye could reach. 

" Leaving Wrangell Island a second time, on September 22, the one 
hundred and seventy-eighth meridian was crossed and a position in lat. 
73° 28' N., long. 179° 52' E., was reached, where the solid pack was 
again encountered; thence steering to the southeastward, along the 
edge of the pack, the one hundred and seventy-eighth meridian was 
recrossed in lat. 73° N., without sighting land, the horizon throughout 
and the sky to the northward being clear. As before, it was found 
that the depth of water gradually increased northward of Wrangell 
Island, but the depths were less than to the northeastward, the 
greatest depth (eighty-two fathoms) having been found at the ^ most 
northeasterly point reached, viz. lat. 73° 44' N., long. 171° 48' W. 

" Except in a few instances, where a lead was followed for a short 
distance, the ice was of such a nature as to make it impossible to pass 
its outer edge, consisting in some places of heavy pack and in others 
of unbroken fields, miles in extent. The field-ice was from two to 
three feet out of water." 



482 AMERICAN EXli'LORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

THE RETURN. 

A longer stay would have endangered the ship at this late date, 
September 27 ; Captain Berry therefore turned South for winter quar- 
ters. Under the instructions of the Naval Board and the Secretary, 
the ship was not to winter in the Arctic with any inordinate risk, 
and Berry deemed it useless to winter at Wrangell Land which had 
proved to be so small an island with no other land near it. He headed 
for the coast of Siberia, which he examined from Cape Jakan eastward, 
and on Tiapka Island, twenty miles west of Cape Serdze, he put up a 
house and left a party supplied with provisions, clothing, and fuel for a 
year, with a boat, dogs, and sleds, to explore the coast westward in search 
of the " Jeannette " crew, and the survivors of the " Mount Wollaston " 
and " Vigilant." He would return for this party later in the season 
when the falling snow had made travelling possible, or if prevented 
from this, would return for them as soon as the ice the next summer 
would permit. The party consisted of Master C. F. Putnam, U. S. N., 
Surgeon Jones, Mr. Gilder, two seamen, and a native as dog driver. 
Leaving them ashore, October 8, the " Rodgers " steamed for St. Law- 
rence Bay, where she arrived after a week's experience of thick and 
stormy weather with violent gales. The preparations for the winter 
were unfortunately kept back by continued bad weather, which pre- 
vented the transfer to the shore of a large part of the provisions and 
supplies. 

THE SHIP BURNED. 

November 20, Ensign Hunt started up the coast with a dog-team 
to visit the camp of Master Putnam, but was compelled by severe 
storms to return to the ship. Li the morning of November 30, the 
startling cry of fire was heard on board the " Rodgers," issuing from 
the hold, which was so closely filled with stores that it was next to 
impossible to get water into it. By 4 P. M. some of these had been 
secured, the men working in the smoke and carbonic acid gas below 
decks; the boats being loaded the ship was abandoned at midnight. 
She drifted up the bay, rigging and sails on fire, and her magazine 



PUTNAM PERISHES. 483 

exploded in the early morning. The cause of the fire could not be 
learned; it was probably from spontaneous combustion or from the 
firing of the deck underneath from the donkey boiler. 

In a camp formed of overturned boats, sails and tents, officers and 
crew found a shelter from a violent snow-storm ; next morning a 
party of natives from the village Noomamoo, seven miles' off, came 
to offer a hospitable refuge in their huts, and the party after a fati- 
guing tramp were distributed among the eleven homes which made 
the settlement, making the uncomfortable exchange of ship life to a 
winter's siege on walrus and blubber. Afterward the officers and crew 
were divided into four parties and scattered in three other villages 
within a radius of twenty miles. 

Natives communicating the news of the burning of the ship to Put- 
nam, he started south with four loaded sledges for their relief, meeting 
Lieutenant Berry, who was on his way to Putnam's camp. Continuing 
his trip under orders, he delivered his provisions on January 4, and on 
the 10th started on his return accompanied by Hunt, Zane, Castillo, 
and three natives, driving his own team of nine dogs. In an attempt 
to face a heavy gale, probably not having the ability to control the 
dogs, or not being aware of the abrupt deviation from the course taken 
by the other sleds, he missed his way in crossing the bay and drifted 
out to sea on an ice floe. An immediate hunt which was entreated of 
the natives was not permitted that night by the violence of the gale, 
and the wind unhappily detached the ice from the shore, and carried it 
to sea; next morning all was clear water. On the 14th and on the 17th, 
the search was renewed along the shore thirty miles, but no good news 
was heard ; on the 29th it was learned that six of the dogs had come 
ashore without harness, one of them with a pistol-shot wound in his 
neck, given probably by Putnam who intended to use it for food, had he 
succeeded in escaping. He was seen three days afterward, being carried 
out to sea, but an earnest effort to reach him in a canoe failed, the ice 
outting through the boat. How long he survived can never be known ; 
the temperature was from twenty to forty degrees below zero, and he had 
no protection from the fierce winds, except his warm clothing. His death 
was either from the cold, want of food, or from the breaking up of the floe. ^ 



484 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

A month's search on the shore made by Waring and Stonej revealed 
nothing more of one of the most promising officers of the expedition. 

In the meantime, February 8, Lieutenant Berry, as yet unacquainted 
with this sad disaster, left Cape Serdze with Hunt to follow the coast 
westward in search of the missing crews ; arriving at the Russian post 
of Nishne March 24, he learned of the landing of part of the " Jean- 
nette's" crew at the mouth of the Lena, and continued his journey, 
overtaking Chief Engineer Melville's search party, and proceeding to 
Yakutsk. Berry intended to fit out a new expedition, but on learning 
that Lieutenant Harber had been ordered by Secretary Chandler to make 
a summer search, he returned home, and Hunt joined Harber. 

The party from the "Rodgers" left on shore at St. Lawrence Bay 
under Master Waring, U. S. N., was received on board the whaling 
barque " North Star," Captain L. C. Owens, of New Bedford, May 8^ 
the Captain, having heard of the party by a letter which Waring had 
entrusted to the natives for any passing whaling vessel, had forced his 
ship through the opposite ice for their rescue. On their way to Ouna- 
laska, falling in with the revenue cutter " Corwin," the " Rodgers' " 
party were transferred to her, arriving in San Francisco June 23, 1882. 
In his report to the Department, Lieutenant Berry earnestly recom- 
mended that the Tchuktchis of St. Lawrence Bay be rewarded for their 
hospitality, to encourage them to aid the crews of any of our whaling 
or other vessels that may be wrecked upon their coast. Before leaving 
them. May 14, Master Waring had distributed among them all the 
remaining supplies and ammunition. A court of inquiry asked for by 
Lieutenant Berry fully exonerated him for the loss of the " Rodgers." 

Secretary Chandler having approved the recommendation to reward 
the Tchuktchis, an appropriation of $3,000 was made by Congress for 
this purpose, and on the 12th of March, 1883, Lieutenant Stoney was 
sent out by the Navy Department to distribute such presents as Berry 
should suggest to the natives, including the women who had repaired 
the clothing of the seamen of the ''Rodgers." The Act of Congress 
recites the purpose of " suitably rewarding the natives at and about St. 
Lawrence Bay who housed, fed, and extended other kindnesses to the 
officers and men of the U. S. S. ' Rodgers.' " 



RESULT OF THE CRUISE. 485 

At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, London, held 
December 12, 1881, the Secretary, C. R. Markham, said : — 

" The complete exploration of Wrangell Land by the officers of the 
'Rodgers ' is a great geographical achievement. For this far-off island, 
so long heard of and at last sighted, but always on the very thresliold 
of the unknown, has been one of the longed-for goals of discovery ever 
since the Tchuktchis told Baron Wrangell that it could be seen on a 
clear day from Cape Jakan. They said that herds of deer sometimes 
came from thence across the ice ; and their traditions rekited how the 
Onkilon, Omoki, and other tribes had wandered northward over the 
ice to distant lands. So that there was a halo of romance over the 
Siberian 'Ultima Thule,' which was heightened by the gallant, but vain 
efforts of Wrangell himself to reach it by dog sledges in 1822 and 1823. 
At length it was actually sighted by Captain Kellett in 1849, when he 
discovered Herald Island in 71° 12' N. The iVmerican Captain Long 
also sighted it in 1867, and others have done so since. 

"But now it has been thoroughly explored, and is a mystery no 
longer. Wrangell Land turns out to be an island forty miles broad, 
between 70° 50' N. and 71° 32' N., sixty-six miles long and eighty miles 
from the nearest point on the Siberian coast ; Herald Island lies thirty 
miles due east." 



CRUISE OF THE UNITED STATES STEAMER "ALLIANCE," JUNE 16 TO 

OCTOBER 11, 1881. 

FITTING OUT OF THE "ALLIANCE." — INSTRUCTIONS TO COMMANDER 
COOPER AND TO COMMANDER WADLEIGH. — ARRIVAL AT REYKIAVIK. 
— DESCRIPTION OF THE " JEANNETTE " CIRCULATED. — THE HARBOR 
OF HAMMERFEST, NORWAY. — GREEN BAY, SPITZBERGEN. — TIDAL 

MARKS ESTABLISHED. — CRUISE IN LAT. 79°. — THE ICE BARRIER. 

RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES UNDER ORDERS. 

The Navy Department, in order to avail itself of every possible 
means of relief to the " Jeannette " or her officers and crew in event 
of her loss, "determined at the same time with the sending of the 
' Rodgers ' through Bering Strait, to dispatch another vessel on a 



486 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

cruise for the missing ship between Greenland, Iceland, and the coast 
of Norway and Spitzbergen as far north as 77° lat., and further if it 
should be found practicable without danger from the ice. Secretary 
Hunt reported to Congress that this decision was made on the sugges- 
tion of " the liberal and public-spirited citizen through whose munifi- 
cence and disinterested efforts to contribute to the cause of science, the 
' Jeannette ' had been sent forth." The U. S. screw steamer " Alli- 
ance," third-rate, of the North Atlantic Fleet, was selected for the 
service, and fitted for Arctic Exploration at the Norfolk Navy Yard, 
chiefly by live-oak sheathing to her bow and a strong iron guard on 
her stem. 

June 14, the Secretary instructed Commander G. H. Wadleigh, 
ordered to succeed Commander Cooper, detached on account of ill 
health, that he would first ascertain the limits of the pack-ice between 
Greenland and Spitzbergen, and should make the fullest observations 
practicable of sea temperatures, and of other ocean phenomena, includ- 
ing specific gravity and degrees of phosphorescence, with specimens 
from the surface, and by drag-nets from the bottom. The northern 
waters offer a fine field for these researches, and few of their organisms 
are found in American collections ; these, therefore, with those of fauna 
and flora, were to be made at every convenient landing at Iceland, 
Greenland, and Spitzbergen. Commander Wadleigh was also to prepare 
for the Hydrographic Office a chart with the drawing of the ship's 
track, and of the field ice and icebergs encountered. 

These instructions for the benefit of science were to be subordinated 
to those previously given to Commander Cooper, dated May 27, 1881, 
in which Secretary Hunt had marked out with more than usual detail 
the route of the "Alliance," enclosing even an itinerary, but still leav- 
ing as usual much to the commander's discretion, except that the time 
of the cruise in the Arctic Region was limited to September 25, the 
ship not being fitted for Arctic Exploration, but sent only as a relief. 

June 16, the " Alliance " left Hampton Roads, reached St. John's 
the 24th, and Reykiavik, July 12. Here, the Parliament of Iceland 
being in session. Governor Finssen made many inquiries of the mem- 
bers in regard to the currents, drift-wood, etc., setting on the coasts. 



i 



OBSERVATIONS BY THE "ALLIANCE." 487 

Commander Wadleigh distributed, through the members, a descrip- 
tion of the " Jeannette," printed in Icelandic, with the offer of a reward 
for any reliable information from the districts represented. Captain 
Vence, of the French corvette "Dupleix," put at Wadleigh's disposal 
the result of surveys which he had been making around the island. 

July 24, the ship anchored in the harbor of Hammerfest, Norway, 
cruising from which on the 31st, she sighted Bear Island, and finding 
it surrounded by ice, went from thence to Bel Sound and Green Har- 
bor, Spitzbergen, cruising along the edge of the pack as far as lat. 
80° 10' N., and running as far east as long. 13° 15', to a point ten miles 
northwest of Welcome Point, along which the ice was impenetrable. 
Oreen Bay was found to be the most frequented harbor of Spitzbergen ; 
it is well protected from all but northeast winds, is very deep, vessels 
of any size being accustomed to anchor in from twenty-five to thirty 
fathoms of water, and then within a cable's length of the shore. 

Saxe Haven was found nearly full of ice August 5. Here Lieutenant 
Perkins of the "Alliance" searched for the tide mark left there by 
Professor Nordenskiold in 1864, but did not find it, probably from the 
•crumbling of the rocks. He left a tide mark on the southeast side of 
the same small islet, "just off the entrance to Saxe Haven" as named 
hj Nordenskiold, consisting of a copper plate with the ship's name and 
•date of visit ; the spike holding the plate being nine feet above the sea 
at low water, 1 p. m., August 5. 

With Master Schwenk he also established a bench mark on a 
boulder in the middle of a small bight west of Hakluyt's Headland, 
Amsterdam Island, lat. 79° 49' N., long. 11° 15' E., and drove a spike 
into a natural tablet on the cliff bearing northeast and north from the 
plate. These bench marks were established in accordance with the 
suggestions of the International Arctic Commission for hypsometrical 
and tidal observations as included in the instructions of the Navy De- 
partment. The time of high water, full moon, August 10, was found 
to be one hour forty-four minutes A. M. ; rise and fall of tide, four feet 
eleven inches. The dip of the magnetic needle at same place was 80° 
SV 13".5. The variation of the compass on Moff Island, south latitude, 
was 17° 30' 45" W., and the dip of magnetic needle 80° 32' 48". 



488 a:merican explorations in the ice zones. 

August 27, the '' Alliance " left Spitzbergen and cruised under sail 
until September 11, to Hammerfest, after which she succeeded in get- 
ting again as far north as 79° 3' 36". The ice and the weather showed 
Commander Wadleigh that it would be unsafe to attempt to reach 
Cape Brewster ; no ship, he thought, should attempt to force a passage 
to the east coast of Greenland without being fitted to pass at least one 
winter in the ice. September 25, under the instructions of the Depart- 
ment as already named, he began his return, arriving at Reykiavik, Octo- 
ber 10, Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 1, and New York, on the 11th. 
While at Reykiavik he received news from Governor Finssen of the 
stranding and wreck of a merchant vessel of twelve hundred tons, 
June 26, 1881, on the rocks just outside of Thorshaven. The Govern- 
mental examination which had been made of this ship had found upon 
it the inscription "Jamestown," Boston, Mass. There was, however, no 
information offered to Commander Wadleigh, indicating in any manner 
the slightest knowledge or rumor of the " Jeannette." 

The instructions of the Department in regard to scientific objects were 
carried out as far as practicable by making floral and geological collec- 
tions, specimens of birds and animals, and the more important Hydro- 
graphical data which have been named. The cruise had its origin in the 
possibility of the drift of the " Jeannette " by a northwest current into 
the open Polar Sea of theory, and a successful crossing into the region 
searched by the " Alliance." This possibility justified the cruise, but 
the unfortunate " Jeannette " was nearly a half circle further east, and 
beyond the impassable North Asiatic ice barrier. The cruise of the 
"Alliance" closed the efforts of America for the relief of the "Jean- 
nette." It is of interest to note that Expeditions were proposed by our 
English and French friends, and that they would have been sent out 
had not the news been received from the parties on the Siberian coast. 
See Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, and of the Societe 
de Geographic. 

Note.— The opportunity offers itself at this hour only, to correct a previous state- 
ment (quoted), that Lieutenant Chipp's observations made on the " Jeannette" were 
lost with his boat. Engineer Melville brought to Washington eveiy particle of the 
" Jeannette " Records ; all were found bv him on the Lena Delta. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE AISTT ARCTIC CRUISE OF LIEUTENANT (LATE ADMIRAL)^ CHARLES 

WILKES, U. S. N., 1839-40. 

THE ANTARCTIC REGION A TERRA INCOGNITA. — OBJECT OF ITS EX- 
PLORATIONS COIklPARED WITH EXPLORATIONS IN THE ARCTIC — 
NATIONAL AID REQUIRED. — EARLIEST A^IERICAN DISCOVERY. — 
FOREIGN EXPLORATIONS, PRIVATE AND NATIONAL. — AVILKES' CRUISE 
A PART OF THE PLANS OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION OF 1838-42. — 
ORGANIZATION OF THE SQUADRON AND ITS ROUTE. — FIRST CRUISE 
TOWARDS cook's NE-PLUS-ULTRA. — CRUISE ALONG THE ICY BAR- 
RIER. — REPORTED DISCOVERY OF THE CONTINENT. — AWARD OF THE 
GOLD MEDAL BY ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, LONDON. — DISCOV- 
ERIES OF ROSS. — SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. — COLLECTIONS IN THE NA- 
TIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON. 

IT has been forcibly remarked that of some parts of our earth we 
know less than we do of the moon or even of some of the distant 
planets. The Astronomer has measured the lunar mountains and 
their craters, and, passing beyond our satellite, has determined some- 
thing of the physical condition not only of the nearer planets of the 
Solar system, but of those of the more remote ; b}^ the revelations of 
the spectroscope, learning in part the structure of the nearer members 
of the Stellar universe. But, even at this day of advanced science, and 
of the marvellous appliances which she both creates and uses, the true 
physical character of the furthest northern and southern regions of the 
globe remains almost unknown ; the seemingly simple question, how 
much land and how much open water exists within the Arctic and 
Antarctic zones, cannot be answered. Especially is this true of the 
Antarctic zone, to which few indeed give a passing thought, finding it 
on their maps and in their geographies, a blank. 

In this point and as regards the efforts of the explorer to penetrate 
within the circle, a marked contrast presents itself in relation to the 
opposite Polar Region — a contrast which has been briefly spoken of in 

489 



490 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the first pages of this volume. The extreme natural differences in the 
character of the two zones as there referred to, will show themselves 
somewhat more at length in what here follows, by contrasting the 
objects of explorations within the two circles, and the efforts resulting 
from them. As introductory, therefore, to a brief notice of American 
Antarctic Exploration, it is proper to pass in review the objects before 
the chief Antarctic voyagers; naming and locating also their tracks 
and discoveries. 

The area of the Antarctic circle is eight million one hundred and 
fifty-five thousand six hundred square miles, an area equal in extent to 
the one-sixth part of the entire land surface of the globe ; its unex- 
plored portion about twice as large as Europe. Lieutenant Maury, 
from whose Physical Geography of the Sea (enlarged edition of 1861), 
this is cited, adds : " This untra veiled region is circular in shape, the 
circumference of which does not measure less than seven thousand 
miles. Its edges have been penetrated here and there, and land, wher- 
ever seen, has been high and rugged. The unexplored area there is 
quite equal to that of our entire frigid zone. Navigators on the voy- 
age from the Cape of Good Hope to Melbourne, and from Melbourne 
to Cape Horn, scarcely ever venture, except while passing Cape Horn, 
to go on the Polar side of 55° S. The fear of icebergs deters them. 
These may be seen there drifting up toward the equator in large num- 
bers and large masses all the year round. I have encountered them 
myself as high up as the parallel of 37° S." The belt of ocean that 
encircles this globe on the Polar side of 55° S., is never free from ice. 
Many of them are miles in extent and hundreds of feet thick. The 
area on the Polar side of the fifty-fifth parallel of south latitude com- 
prehends a space of 17,784,600 square miles. The nursery for the 
bergs, to fill such a field, must be an immense one ; such a nursery can- 
not be on the sea, for icebergs require to be fastened firmly to the shore 
until they attain full size. They therefore, in their mute way, are loud 
with evidence in favor of Antarctic shore-lines of great extent, of deep 
bays where they may be formed, and of lofty cliffs whence they may 
be launched. Off the Cape of Good Hope they have been seen as far 
as the parallel of 35°. 



491 

For the last two hundred years the Arctic ocean has been a theatre 
for exploration ; but as for the Antarctic, no expedition has attempted 
to make any persistent exploration or even to winter there. 

In Chapter I. it has been shown that the first Arctic Explorations 
had their origin in a commercial object; for it was believed that by 
finding a passage around the northern shores either of America or of 
Asia, the riches of the east would be more readily secured'. A route 
around Cape Horn too was uninviting because of the storms of the 
Antarctic Seas. Additionally to the commercial object, was the " bar- 
ren ambition " to attain or approach the North Pole, as shown for 
example by the boat and sledge expedition of Parry's voyage from 
Spitzbergen poleward, at the date of which, rewards were offered for 
reaching the highest latitudes, and <£ 10,000 to reach the Pole. Yet to 
this object a scientific interest soon began to attach itself. The north 
magnetic pole of the earth and the northern pole of cold were to be 
located, the isothermal lines to be laid down, and the important interests 
of the whaling trade promoted ; all of which objects, in a greater or less 
degree, are indeed still involved in exploration in the Arctic, and to 
some extent in the Antarctic also. 

But the original purpose just named as before the Arctic explorer 
had, of course, no place in Antarctic voyaging, for nothing of value 
could be conceivable in a route passing by the South Pole from one 
continent to another, the peninsular terrainations of the continents be- 
ing known to be relatively far more distant from the southern pole 
than the Arctic regions from the northern. For Antarctic Exploration, 
therefore, the earliest object could be simply to determine what lay 
within the vast space between these continental terminations and their 
pole. Within this void was the Terra Australis Incognita^ so marked 
upon the maps, not only of the middle ages, but of those far down with- 
in the lines of modern history ; for from the earliest date of the division 
of the earth into the old five zones or climates (separated as was sup- 
posed by the uninhabitable equatorial belt), the belief existed that 
beyond the supposed highly-heated region of the equator, lay this large 
continent extending to the Pole ; and when it became known that the 
equator was inhabitable, the unknoiun was shifted further south; and 



492 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

again on Van Dieman's exploration of Australia and Tasman's of New 
Zealand, it was again shifted south. It so remained until Captain Cook 
in 1774 dispelled the illusion by his circuit of the southern seas in high 
latitudes. In his own words, "he imt an end to the search for a 
southern continent which had engrossed the attention of maritime 
nations for two centuries, and had been a favorite theme for geograph- 
ers of all ages." He attained the lat. of 71° 10' south on the one hun- 
dred and seventh meridian, and settled the form of New Zealand, New 
Caledonia, and other Australian lands and islands. 

The disappearance of the Terra Incognita from the maps, and from 
the theory of the geographers, was not, however, a displacement of the 
belief in the existence of large land masses in the southern Polar zones. 
The theory of the continent had based itself chiefly on the supposition 
that one must exist there to counterbalance the lands of the opposite 
northern belt, in support of which idea Lieutenant Maury had said "It 
seems to be a physical necessity that land should not be antipodal to 
land." Within an area, therefore, equal in extent to one-sixth part of 
the entire land surface of the globe, it was urged that land must exist 
antipodal or opposite to the vast water area lying between the circle 
and Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. Meteorological con- 
siderations, further urged by Lieutenant Maury, were chiefly the belief 
that mountain masses there appear to perform, in the chambers of the 
upper air, the oflice which the jet of cold water discharges for the 
exhausted steam in the condenser of an , engine, Antarctic mountains 
and lofty peaks producing as condensers of excessive precipitation the 
steady flow of the winds of that region towards the South Pole. To 
determine the extent of such land masses, their elevations, and depres- 
sions, and the glaciers, or ice-fields within their indentations and off 
their shores, still remained objects of geographical investigation ; and 
to these objects were to be added special researches in relation to 
botany and zoology, the flora and fauna of the southern latitudes, and 
other researches bearing an intimate relation to those in the high north. 
In the words of the Committee of the Royal Society of London, recom- 
mending the recent voyage of the " Challenger," " In the southern 
ocean the study of ocean temperatures is expected to afford the most 



BELLINGSHAUSEN. 493 

important results, and the observations of meteorological and magnetic 
phenomena there are even yet more important." 

Antarctic explorations, therefore, for the purposes just named could 
not be lost sight of, but have been prosecuted at times by the aid of 
private liberality only and -more extensively by national expeditions. 
In advocacy of Government aid, the North British Review (18-i7), 
referring to the Resolutions of the British Association which recom- 
mended the Naval Expedition of Sir James Ross, forcibly says : — 

"The necessity of national aid in promoting and completing great physical 
theories, has been long admitted by every civilized nation in the case of astronomy, 
even when no practical or utilitarian result could be reasonably contemplated ; but 
that necessity becomes doubly urgent in reference to those sciences which are likely 
to yield the most beneficial results both to navigation and commerce. When the 
efforts of private liberality and individual talent are inadequate to the solution of 
great problems in which national interests or national honor are involved, it be- 
comes tlie paramount duty of every civilized State to supply from its treasury the 
sinews of thought, and the duty also of every true sovereign to hold out to the 
intellectual gladiator the laurels he can bestow. ..." Great as have been the 
intellectual achievements of the past, and accelerated as has been the progress both 
of terrestrial aud celestial physics in the present century, yet the deeper mysteries of 
creation remain undisclosed, and ages of herculean toil must pass away before man 
has executed his commission as the interpreter of Nature. The Scriptures foretell 
an epoch when ' knowledge shall increase, and man go to and fro upon the earth.' 
The ubiquity of science must, therefore, precede the universality of her dominion, 
and her dominion must be established before her conquests are secured. The last 
enemy to be subdued is Ignorance, and the last conqueror Reason. The current 
cycle cannot be closed till the earth's circuit has been spanned, her crypts laid 
open, and her skies explored. The last act of mental toil which is to unfold the last 
mystery of power, and display in its full development the glory of the Most High, 
will introduce another cycle of being, in whicl;i new combinations of matter will con- 
stitute a new arena for nobler forms of life, and higher orders of intelligence, and 
more lofty spheres of labor and enjoyment." 

The history of the United States exhibits in many instances the 
sympathy of our people and of our legislative bodies with these ideas. 
National assistance for expeditions to the Southern Zone was not 
however extended by any government within the period of the more 
than half century which followed Cook's vo3^age ; with the exception, 
therefore of the incidental discovery of the islands of Peter I., lat. 68° 
67', long. 90° 46' W., and of Alexander I. in about the same latitude, 



494 a:merican explorations in the ice zones. 

long. 73° by Captain Bellingshausen of the Russian Imperial ship& 
" Mirny " and " Vostok " in the year 1821, Antarctic exploration was 
the work of private ships ; at times that of a stray whaler. 

It is to the credit of American enterprise that the first of such 
explorations, that of Captain Palmer, awakened and stimulated an 
interest in the Southern Zone, which favored the organization of 
national expeditions. And here it may be admitted with the author of 
" The History of the American Whale Fishery," Mr. A. Starbuck, that 
" as pioneers of the sea, whalemen have been the advance guard of 
civilization ; exploring expeditions following after to glean where they 
had reaped ; in the frozen seas of the North and the South, their keela 
have ploughed to the extreme limits of navigation, and but for them the 
Western oceans would much longer have been comparatively unknown. 
... English whalers were the first that traded in the regions of Van 
Dieman's Land and Australia, and according to the London Quarterly 
Review^ without them England might never have founded her colonies 
there, or if she had have maintained them in their early stages of 
danger and privation." (See Report by Prof. Baird of Fish Commis- 
sion, 1875). Captain Palmer's discovery is illustrative of the general 
sentiment which accredits whalemen as the pioneers of the sea. 

palmer's land. 

The SoutJi Pacific Directory, compiled by Findlay of London, and extensively 
used by American and English Navigators, rather strangely omits even in the 
edition of 1877, all notice of the discovery of this land lying not very far from the 
Antarctic Circle, while the Directory gives the fall particulars of Biscoe's discovery of 
its southern extension at a later date. The Admira,]ty Ice Chart and their Polar 
Sea Charts also omit Palmer's Land. A reproduction probably of the former of 
these charts in Steiler's Atlas from the house of Perthes, Gotha, has done justice 
to American work. The discovery is referred to by an interesting note in the North 
American Review for 1834, in an article on the Whale Fishery. The Revieiv says : " A 
few years since, (1821, two years before Biscoe's visit,) two Russian discovery 
ships came in sight of a group of cold, inhospitable islands in the Antarctic Ocean. 
The commander imagined himself a discoverer, and doubtless was prepared with 
drawn sword and with the flag of his sovereign flying over his head, to take posses- 
sion in the name of the Czar. At this time he was becalmed in a dense fog. Judge 
of his surprise, when the fog cleared away, to see a little sealing sloop from Con- 
necticut as quietly riding between his ships as if lying in the waters of Long Island 



THE SOUTH PACIFIC EXPEDITION. 495 

Sound. He learned from the captain that the islands were already well known, and 
that he had just returned from exploring the shores of a new land at the South; upon 
which the Russian gave vent to an expression too hard to be repeated, but 
sufficiently significant of his opinion of American enterprise. After the cap- 
tain of the sloop he named the discovery ' Palmer's Land,' in which the American 
acquiesced, and by this name it appears to be designated on all the recently pub- 
lished Russian and English charts." Palmer's Land will be found on Steiler's 
Atlas south of the Shetland Islands, in about lat. 63° 5', long. 57° 55' 'W. Judge 
Daly includes the discovery in his article on " Polar Research," in Johnson's Ency- 
clopedia. The President of the Royal Geographical Society of London names it in 
his announcement of the awards of the Society for Geographical Discovery, voted 
by the Society to Captain Wilkes in 1848. A visit to it had been one element in the 
Instructions given by the Navy Department to the Expedition under Wilkes. 

Following our enterprising American, Weddell in 1823 advanced three degrees 
further than Cook, reaching lat. 74° 15' S. Biscoe in 1831-33 discovered Graham 
Land, Enderby Land, and Kemp Land, on the edge of the circle, his brig the 
" Tula " having been under the instructions of its owners, Messrs. Enderby of Lon- 
don, to make search for new lands within the zone. The English Captain, Biscoe, 
received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, London. 

The subsequent discovery of Balleny Islands and Sabrina Land by Balleny in 
1839 closes these individual efforts, bringing us to the era of the National Expedi- 
tions referred to, viz., those of D'Urville from France, Sir James Ross from England, 
and Wilkes from the United States, expeditions which found themselves in ready 
the same regions in the Antarctic within the same period, 1038-42. The cruise of the 
American squadron only claims attention in connection with the title of this volume. 



LIEUTENANT WILKES ANTAECTIC CEIHSE A PART OF THE U. S. EX- 
PLORING EXPEDITION OF 1888-42. 

The American National Explorations made within the Antarctic 
Circle in the year 1840 were a part of those planned by Lieutenant 
Charles Wilkes, the Commander of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, 
1838-42. This expedition was authorized by Congress by the Act of 
May 18, 1836, " for the purpose of exploring and suryeying in th^ great 
Southern Ocean in the important interests of our commerce, embarked 
in the whale fisheries and other adventures in that ocean, as well as to 
determine the existence of all doubtful islands and shoals, and to dis-= 
cover and accurately fix the position of those which lie in or near the 
track pursued by our merchant vessels in that quarter, and may have 
escaped the observation of Scientific Navigators." For these purposes 



496 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the very liberal appropriation of 1300,000 was made by the Congress of 
the year just named. 

By the instructions of Secretary Paulding, dated August 11, 1838, 
Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was advised that the President had ap- 
pointed him to the command of a squadron organized for these objects, 
consisting of the sloops of war '' Vincennes " and " Peacock," the store- 
ship ''Relief," the brig "Porpoise " and tenders, "Sea Gull" and "Flying 
Fish." The Secretary also indicated the course of the cruise, naming 
the chief points to be visited by the expedition in the order of: Rio 
Janeiro, Cape Frio, the Rio Negro, and Terra del Fuego, thence the 
Southern Antarctic to the southward of Powell's group between it and 
Sandwich Land ; thence to the southward and westward as far as the 
Ne plus ultra of Cook ; thence to Valparaiso ; the Navigators' group ; 
the Fiji Islands ; thence by a second attempt to penetrate within the 
Antarctic region, south of Van Diemen's Land, and thence to San Fran- 
cisco via the Sandwich Islands, from which the return would be to 
Singapore and home by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. 

OFFICERS.* 

The senior officers of the squadron under Wilkes, were : Lieutenant 
William L. Hudson, commanding the "Peacock," Lieutenant-Command- 

* Officers' Naval Record : — 
Charles Wilkes, Midshipman, Jan. 1, 1818; Lieutenant, April 28, 1826; Commander, 

July 13, 1843; Captain, Sept. 14, 1855; Commodore, July 16, 1862; Kear Admiral, 

Aug. 6, 1866; Died Feb. 7, 1877. 
W. L. Hudson, Midshipman, July 16, 1816; Lieutenant, April 28, 1826; Commander, 

Nov. 2, 1842; Captain, Sept. 14, 1855; Died Oct. 35, 1862. 
A. K. Long, Midshipman, Jan. 1, 1818; Lieutenant, March 3, 1827; Commander, Oct. 12, 

1844; Captain, Sept. 14, 1855; Ketired, Oct. 1, 1864; Died Oct. 6, 1866. 
S. K. Knox, Midshipman, April 1, 1828; Passed Midshipman, June 15, 1837; Lieutenant, 

Sept. 8, 1841 ; Captain on reserved list, April 4, 1867. 
J. W. E. Eeid, Midshipman, Sept. 26, 1831; Passed Midshipman, June 15, 1837; Lost at 

sea, May, 1839, while commanding the '' Sea Gull." 
T. T. Craven, Midshipman, May 1. 1822: Passed Midshipman, May 24, 1828; Lieutenant, 

May 27, 1830; Commander, Dec. 16, 1852; Captain, June 7, 1861; Commodore, July 

16, 1863; Eear Admiral, Oct. 10, 1866; Retired Dec. 30, 1869. 
O. Carr, Midshipman, March 11, 1827; Passed Midshipman, June 10, 1832; Lieutenant, 

Dec. 8, 1838; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Captain, Retired, April 4, 1867. 



WILKES' OFFICERS. 497 

ants A. K. Long and Cadwallader Ringgold, Commandant Samuel R. 
Knox and Passed Midshipman James W. E. Reid, commanding re- 

R. E. Johnson, Midshipman, Oct. 1, 1827; Passed Midshipman, June 10, 1833; Lieu- 
tenant, Feb. 12, 1839; Died Feb. 4, 1855. 

James Alden, Midshipman, April 1, 1828; Passed Midshipman, June 14, 1834: Lieutenant, 
Feb. 28, 1840; Commodore, Sept. 14, 1855; Captain, Jan. 2, 1863; Commodore, July 
25, 1865; Rear Admiral, Jan. 19, 1871; Died Feb. 5, 1877. 

W. L. Maury, Midshipman, Feb. 2, 1829; Passed Midshipman, July 3, 1835; Lieutenant, 
Feb. 26, 1841 ; Resigned April 20, 1851. . 

S. P. Lee, Midshipman, Nov. 22, 1825; Passed Midshipman, June 4, 1831; Lieutenant, 
Feb. 9, 1837; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Captain, July 16, 1862; Commodore, July 
25, 1866; Rear Admiral, April 22, 1870: Retired Feb. 13, 1873. 

W. M. Walker, Midshipman, Nov. 1, 1827; Passed Midshipman, June 10, 1833; Lieu- 
tenant, Dec. 8, 1838; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Captain, July 16, 1862; Died Nov. 
24, 1863. 

G. F. Emmons, Midshipman, April 1, 1828; Passed Midshipman, June 14, 1834; Lieu- 
tenant, Feb. 25, 1841; Commander, Jan. 28, 1856; Captain, Feb. 7, 1833; Commodore, 
Sept. 20, 1868; Rear Admiral, Nov. 25, 1872; Retired Aug. 23, 1873. 

O. H. Perry, Midshipman, Feb. 28, 1829; Passed Midshipman, July 3, 1855; Lieutenant, 
Feb. 23, 1841; Resigned July 23, 1849. 

R. F. Pinkney, Midshipman, Dec. 1, 1827; Passed Midshipman, June 10, 1833; Lieu- 
tenant Feb. 28, 1838; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Resigned April 23, 1861. 

A. L. Case, Midshipman, April 1, 1828; Passed Midshipman, June 14, 1834; Lieutenant, 
Feb. 25, 1841; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Captain, Jan. 2, 1863; Commodore, Dec. 8, 
1867; Rear Admiral, May 24, 1872; Retired Feb. 3, 1875. 

Joseph A. Underwood, Midshipman, Feb. 2, 1829; Passed Midshipman, July 3, 1855; 
Killed at Mololo Islands by Fiji islanders, July 24, 1840. 

M. G. L. Claiborne, Midshipman, Feb. 1, 1827; Passed Midshipman, June 10, 1833; 
Lieutenant, June 22, 1838; Resigned June 1, 1849. 

H. J. Hartstene, Midshipman, April 1, 1828; Passed Midshipman, June 14, 1834; Lieu- 
tenant, Feb. 23, 1840; Commander, Sept. 14, 1855; Resigned Jan. 9, 1861. 

J. B. Dale, Midshipman, Feb. 2, 1824; Passed Midshipman, July 3, 1835; Lieutenant, 
Feb. 25, 1845; Died July 24, 1848. 

James Palmer, Acting Surgeon, Assistant Surgeon, March 26, 1834; Surgeon, Oct. 27, 
1841; Medical Director, March 3, 1871; Retired June 29, 1873; Died April 24, 1883. 

E. Gilchrist, Acting Surgeon, Jan. 26, 1832; Passed-Assistant Surgeon, Nov. 8, 1836; 
Surgeon, Sept. 21, 1840; Died Nov. 6, 1869. 

J. L. Fox, Assistant Surgeon, Feb. 9, 1837; Passed-Assistant Surgeon, June j6, 1842, 
Surgeon, Aug. 16, 1847; Died Dec. 17, 1864. 

J. F. Sickles, Assistant Surgeon, Feb. 28, 1833; Surgeon, Sept. 8, 1841; Died April 18, 
1848. 

C. F. B. Guillou, Acting Surgeon, Feb. 9, 1837; Passed-Assistant Surgeon, June 6, 1842; 
Surgeon, Aug. 28, 1847; Retired Sept. 15, 1854. 

J. S. Whittle, Assistant Surgeon, June 20, 1838; Died April 5, 1850. 

R. R. Waldron, Purser, entered the service June 15, 1827; Died Oct. 30, 1846- 

W. Speiden, Purser, entered the service Aug. 30, 1837; Died Dec. 1861. 



498 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

spectively the other vessels which have been named, and the fol- 
lowing Lieutenants, T. T. Craven, O. Carr, R. E. Johnson, J. Alden, 
W. L. Maury, S. P. Lee, W. M. Walker, G. F. Emmons, O. H. Perry, 
R. F. Pinkney, A. L. Case, J. A. Underwood, M. G. L. Claiborne, H. J. 
Hartstene, and J. B. Dale. The late U. S. Surgeon-General James 
Palmer, Silas Holmes, J. S. Whittle, E. L. Gilchrist, J. L. Fox, J. F. 
Sickles, and C. F. B. Guillou were the acting surgeons. R. R. Waldron 
was Purser — a title now supplied in the navy by that of Paymaster. 
The whole number of officers who sailed with the Expedition was 
eighty-four, exclusive of the Scientific Corps of twelve civilians. This 
corps was composed of Messrs. Charles Pickering, J. Drayton, J. D. 
Brackenridge, J. D. Dana, T. R. Peale, A. T. Agate, H. Hale, J. G. 
Brown, J. W. Dyer, W. Rich, J. P. Couthouy, and F. L. Davenport, 
the last named as the Interpreter. The complement of the seamen 
exceeded five hundred. 

The Secretary instructed the Commander that the Corps of Scien- 
tific gentlemen was placed under his direction for the more successful 
attainments of science and knowledge, for the prosecution of which he 
was to take all occasions not incompatible with the primary objects of 
the Expedition. The hydrography and geography of the various seas 
and countries pointed out in the preceding instructions and all the 
researches connected with them, as well as with astronomy, terrestrial 
magnetism, and meteorology, were confided exclusively to the officers of 
the navy, on whose zeal and talents the Department confidently relied 
for such results as would enable future navigators to pass over without 
fear or danger the track traversed by the vessels of the Expedition. 

Lieutenant Wilkes, who received the offer of command, was well 
qualified by his previous astronomical and other professional ex- 
perience. He had established the first fixed observatory in the United 
States — a small building in the city of Washington, north of the 
Capitol. The lamented Gilliss, succeeding him in charge of this, made 
those continuous and valued observations, chiefly for the use of Wilkes' 
squadron on its return, which are contained in the two volumes pub- 
lished in 1846 by the Senate ; observations which led to the establish- 
ment of the present U. S. Naval Observatory. 



LIEUTENANT HFDSON's RANK. 499 

The organization of the squadron seems to have been different from 
that which would be made at the present day ; for under the old regime 
of the Navy Department, it was under the charge of the Board of Navy 
Commissioners of that date, who selected the ships previous to, and, 
therefore, without the advice of a commander who was to be at the 
head of so important an expedition ; in consequence also of the tem- 
porary sickness of Secretary Dickerson, the preliminary orders emanated 
from the Secretary of War, the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett. At the time of 
sailing, the " Relief " was the only one of the vessels belonging to the 
number of those originally selected. It must be remembered also in any 
judgment of the labors of the expedition, that it contained no ship of 
steam power, or in any way fitted out with the modern appliances 
indispensable for conflict with the ice-fields of the Antarctic. The 
" Vincennes " was a sloop of seven hundred and eighty tons, originally 
single-decked and with but a light deck now added ; the " Peacock " 
was of six hundred and fifty tons only ; the " Porpoise " a gun brig of 
two hundred and thirty only ; the tenders were New York pilot boats ; 
and the " Relief," a store ship of such slow rate of sailing as made her 
ill adapted for the cruise. The " Peacock," before sailing, was found 
to have her upper works worn and much decayed — seriously develop- 
ing this on the cruise. 

In another distinct feature the expedition bore a peculiar character, 
by the acceptance on the part of Lieutenant Hudson of the appoint- 
ment as second in command, his naval rank being above that of Lieu- 
tenant Wilkes. This acceptance was the result of a very complimentary 
letter received by Lieutenant Hudson from Mr. Poinsett, Acting Sec- 
retary of the Navy, and the publication therewith of the Navy General 
Order of June 22, 1838, which recited that "the armament of the 
Exploring Expedition, being adapted merely for its necessary de/ence 
while engaged in the examination and survey of the Southern Ocean, 
against any attempt to disturb its operations by the- savage and warlike 
inhabitants of those islands, and the objects which it is destined to pro- 
mote being altogether scientific and useful, intended for the benefit 
equally of the United States and of all commercial nations of the 
world, it is considered to he entirely divested of all military character ; 



500 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

even in the event of the country being involved in a war, before the 
return of the squadron, its path upon the ocean will be peaceful, and 
its pursuits respected by all belligerents. The President has, there- 
fore, thought proper, in assigning officers to the command of this 
squadron, to depart from the usual custom of selecting them from the 
senior ranks of the navy and according to their respective grades in the 
service ; and has appointed Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, first officer, to 
command the Exploring Expedition, and Lieutenant William L. Hud- 
son to command the ship ' Peacock,' and to be second officer of said 
squadron, and take command thereof, in the event of the death of the 
first officer, or his disability, from accident or sickness, to conduct the 
operations of the expedition." 

The squadron got under way from Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, the 
18th of August, 1838, and on the 25th the Commander laid his course 
for Rio via the island of Madeira, reaching Funchal, September 16, the 
Cape Verde Islands, October 6, and the harbor of Rio the 23d of 
November. From the last-named port the course laid down in the 
instructions of the Secretary was again taken up. 



THE ANTARCTIC CRUISE. 

The squadron, leaving Rio de Janeiro, January 6, stood to the south- 
ward for the Rio Negro, made there the investigations referred to in its 
instructions, and on the 2d of February, sailed for Cape Horn, passing 
over the localities of those shoals which had been said to exist in its 
track and through the Straits of Le Maire. From thence, passing 
around Cape Horn, Wilkes anchored in Orange Harbor. He then sent 
the " Peacock " and " Flying Fish " toward the Ne plus ultra of Cook, 
and took the " Porpoise " and " Sea Gull " to accomplish that part of 
his instructions which required exploration betweeji Powell's group 
and Palmer's Land. He says : — 

" We all left Orange Harbor on the 24th February. I had little idea of effecting 
anything at this late season. The only thing that appeared possible was the sight- 
ing of Palmer's Land, and getting its trend to the southward and eastward. I 
judged the lateness of the season might be favorable for this object, from the sum- 
mer's ice having drifted off; the trend of the land to the south-southeast was seen 



SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES. 501 

for about thirty miles, and several small, rocky islets were found off its eastern cape, 
which I named Cape Hope. It is high, and, like all the land in high latitudes, cov- 
ered with snow and ice. The South Shetiands were sighted and points verified as 
well as they could be with the weather we had. During this time of thirty-six days, 
we had scarcely a single day to dry clothes, and the men suffered much from the con- 
tinued dampness they were exposed to. We acquired all that could be expected at 
the late season of the year, namely some experience among ifche ice." 

The "Peacock" and "Flying Fish," which had chiefly for their 
object to learn whether the line of icy barrier had increased to the 
northward since the time of Cook, met with very boisterous weather; 
the second of these vessels reached within sixty miles of the Ne plus 
ultra before she fell in with the firm barrier; after incurring much 
hazard, both ships returned north. After further surveys, particularly 
at the Sandwich Islands, where, at Point Venus, a tide-pillar was planted, 
Wilkes sailed for Sydney, New South Wales. From this point the 
second and most important part of the cruise was made by the " Vin- 
cennes," the " Peacock," and the " Porpoise " of the squadron, the 
tender, " Sea Gull," having been previously lost in a gale off the coast 
of Chili, and the " Flying Fish " being unable to proceed further than 
the first rendezvous appointed, MacQuarie Island, lat. 54° 44' S., long. 
159° 49' E. 

Lieutenant Wilkes left the hospitable harbor of Sydney, New South 
Wales, December 26, 1839, with favorable weather and winds which 
enabled him to crowd sail on the ships, to maintain their line abreast, 
and to make frequent intercommunications. The weather continuing 
fair until the close of the month, gave him the fullest opportunity for 
fitting up each vessel for the ice regions. All openings were calked, 
and the seams covered with tarred canvas, over which strips of sheet 
lead were nailed. Casings built around the hatches were deemed suf- 
ficient to preserve the temperature within at 50°, which the Commander 
believed best adapted to their circumstances, and which would prevent 
the injurious effects otherwise received by those who would pass sud- 
denly from below to the deck ; he thought it more important to keep 
the air dry than warm. 

January 1, 1840, was a day usually termed, both on sea and shore, a 
weather breeder ; by midnight the weather became misty ; the tender. 



602 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIONS LN" THE ICE ZONES. 

"Flying Fish," was lost sight of not to be again seen until the squadron 
returned to Sydney. The " Peacock " also was separated on the 3d^ 
On the 5th the "Vincennes" and "Porpoise " were in lat. 53° 30' S., 
and on the 8th in lat. 55° 38' S., on the 9th in lat. 57° 15' S., long. 162° 
30' E. This last-named position was near the site of Emerald Isle ; 
neither the island n5r any indications of land, however, being seen, the 
Commander inferred that the island does not exist in the locality 
where it is laid down on the charts. 



ICE ISLANDS AND BERGS. 

Ice islands and bergs now became so numerous as to compel the 
ships occasionally to change their course. The bergs showed within 
them large cavities worn by the sea in their perpendicular sides, the 
plane surfaces of some being inclined to the horizon. As the number 
increased the sea became smoother and there was no apparent motion, 
but between 8 and 9 p. m. of the 11th, the ship passed a low point of 
ice into a large bay, and within an hour afterward reached its extreme 
limits, a compact barrier of ice enclosing large bergs. The position 
was lat. 64° 11' S., long. 164° 30' E., the variation 22° East. The bar- 
ometer stood at 29.20 inches ; the temperature of the air 33°, of the 
water 32°. A thick fog set in, shutting out the view beyond a ship's 
length. But on the 16th the "Yincennes" made frequent tacks to 
gain as much southing as possible, the report from the look-out at sun- 
set having given promise of a new opening. 

"The ship," says Lieutenant Wilkes, "had rapid way on her and was much 
tossed about, when in an instant all was perfectly still and quiet; the transition was 
so sudden that many were awakened by it from sound sleep, and all well knew from 
the short experience we had had, that the cessation of the sound and motion usual at 
s«a, v/as a proof that we had run Avithin a line of ice, — an occurrence from which 
the feeling of great danger is inseparable. The watch was called by the officer of 
the deck, to be in readiness to execute such orders as might be necessary for the 
safety of the ship. Many of those from below were seen hurrying up the hatches, 
and those on deck straining their eyes to discover the barrier in time to avoid acci- 
dent. The ship still moving rapidly along, some faint hope remained that the bay 
might prove a deep one, and enable me to satisfy my sanguine hopes and belief 
relative to the land. 



iviACQUARIE ISLAND. 503 

"The feeling is awful, and the uncertainty most trying, thus to enter within the 
icy barrier blindfolded, as it were, by an impenetrable fog, and the thought con- 
stantly recurring that both ship an*d crew were in imminent danger ; yet I was satis- 
fied that nothing could be gained but by pursuing this course. On we kept, until it 
was reported to me, by attentive listeners, that they heard the low and distant rust- 
ling of the ice; suddenly a dozen voices proclaimed the barrier to be in sight just 
ahead. The ship, which a moment before seemed as if unpeopled, fi'om the stillness 
of all on board, was instantly alive with the bustle of performing the evolutions 
necessary to bring her to the wind, which was unfevorable to a return on the same 
track by which we had entered. After a quarter of an hour, the ice was again made 
ahead, and the full danger of our situation realized. The ship was certainly 
embayed ; and although the extent of sea room to which we were limited, was 
rendered invisible by the dark and murky weather, yet that we were closely circum- 
scribed was evident from having made the ice so soon on either tack, and from the 
audible rustling around us. It required several hours to extricate the ship from this 
bay. 

"Few are able to estimate the feelings that such an occasion causes to a Com- 
mander, who has the responsibility of the safety of ship and crew operating as a 
heavy weight upon his heart, and producing a feeling as if on the verge of some 
overwhelming calamity. All tends to satisfy him that nothing could guide him in 
safety through, or shield from destruction those who have been entrusted to his 
charge, but the hands of an all-wise Providence." 

On the day last named the three vessels were in long. 157° 46' E., 
again within a short distance of each other. Captain Hudson, of the 
"Peacock," after his separation had fortunately made MacQuarie Island 
on the 10th, where he put up the pointed signal, made experiments, 
and collected specimens. Passed Midshipman Eld found the sides of 
the rugged hills literally covered with myriads of birds. Passing a 
deep fissure in the rocks he soon heard such a din of squeaking, squall- 
ing, and gabbling, that it was impossible to hear one's self speak, and 
found his presence so displeasing that they snapped at him, shaking and 
pinching his flesh so violently as to make him stand upon the defensive. 
Collecting a number of birds and a few penguin eggs about the size of 
a goose egg^ he was further surprised by a visit of two albatrosses, 
who deliberately flew away with two of the eggs in their beaks in spite 
of all his efforts to prevent them. He says, " These penguins are the 
Eudyptes chrysocoma ; they are from sixteen to twenty inches in 
height, with white breast and nearly black back, the rest being of a 
dark olive color, with the exception of the head, which is adorned on 



504 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



each side with four or five yellow feathers, three or four inches long, 
looking like graceful plumes. The bird» stand erect in rows, which 
gives them the appearance of Liliputian soldiers. The sight was novel 
and beautiful, and had it not been for the gabble, — enough to deafen 
me, — I could have stayed much longer." At a subsequent landing on 
the coast Mr. Eld succeeded in taking a king penguin of enormous size^ 
viz. ; from tip of tail to the bill, forty-five inches ; across the flippers,, 
thirty-seven inches ; and the circumference of the body, thirty-three 
inches. He was taken after a truly sailor-like fashion, by knocking 
him down. The bird remained quite unmoved on their approach, or 

rather showed a disposition to 
come forward to greet them. A 
blow with the boat hook, how- 
ever, stunn'ed him, and before 
his recovery he was well secured. 
He showed, on coming to him- 
self, much resentment at the 
treatment he had received, not 
only by fighting, but by an inor- 
dinate noise. He was in due time 
preserved as a specimen to grace 
the collection at Washington. In 
his craw were found thirty-twO' 
pebbles, from the size of a pea to 
that of a hazelnut. The quartermaster of the " Peacock " secured a 
large species of penguin and some green paroquets having a large red 
spot on the head, a purple spot at the root of the bill and a straight 
beak.* 

* Sir C. Wyville Thomson, chief of the scientific staff of H. M. S. *' Challenger," says 
of the Penguins and their retreats: "The well-known tussock-grass of the Falklands 
forms a dense jungle. The root-clumps or ' tussocks ' are two or three feet in width and 
about a foot high, and the spaces between them one to two feet wide. The tuft of thick 
grass stems, — seven or eight feet in height, — rises strong and straight for a yard or so, 
and then the culms separate from one another and mingle with those of the neighboring 
tussocks. This makes a brush very difficult to make one's way through, for the heads of 
grass are closely entangled together on a level with the face and chest. In this scrub one 
of the crested penguins, probably Eudyptes chrysocoma, called by the sealers, in common 




PENGUIN. 



THE PENGUIN AND THE ALBATROSS. 505 



THE NORTH PACIFIC ALBATROSS. 

The species of this remarkable bird named bj' Audubon Diomedea 
Nigripes^ the black-footed albatross, is spoken of by Mr. E. W. Nelson, 
Naturalist of the U. S. Revenue Steamer " Corwin," as follows: — 

" The ' gony,* as this bird is called on the North Pacific, is an abun- 

Tvith other species of the genus Eudyptes, the 'rock-hopper,' has established a rookery. 
From a great distance, even so far as the hut or the ship, one could hear an incessant 
noise like the barking of a myriad of dogs in all possible keys, and as we came near the 
place, bands of penguins were seen constantly going and returning between the rookery 
and the sea. All at once, out at sea, one hundred yards or so from the shore, the water is 
seen in motion, a dark red beak and sometimes a pair of eyes appearing now and then for 
a moment above the surface. The moving water approaches the shore in a wedge shape, 
and with great rapidity. A band of perhaps from three to four hundred penguins scram- 
ble out upon the stones, at once exchanging the vigorous and graceful movements and 
Attitudes for which they are so remarkable while in the water, for helpless and ungainly 
ones, tumbling over the stones, and apparently with diflSculty assuming their normal 
position, upright on their feet — which are set far back — and with their fin-like wings 
hanging in a useless kind of way at their sides. When they have got fairly out of the 
water, beyond the reach of the surf, they stand together for a few minutes drying and 
dressing themselves and talking loudly, apparently congratulating themselves on their 
«af e landing, and then they scramble in a body over the stony beach, — many falling and 
picking themselves up again with the help of their flappers on the way, and make straight 
for one particular gangway into the scrub, along which they waddle in regular order up 
to the rookery. In the meantime a party of about equal number appear from the rookery 
at the end of another of the paths. When they get out of the grass on to the beach 
they all stop and talk and look about them, sometimes for three or four minutes. They 
then with one consent scuttle down over the stones into the water, and long lines of 
ripple radiating rapidly from their place of departure are the only indications that the 
birds are speeding out to sea. The tussock-brake, which in Inaccessible Island is 
perhaps four or five acres in extent, was alive with penguins breeding. The nests are 
built of the stems and leaves of the spartina, in the spaces between the tussocks. They 
are two or three inches high, with a slight depression for the eggs, and about a foot in 
diameter. The gangways between the tussocks, along which the penguins are constantly 
passing, are wet and slushy, and the tangled grass, the strong ammoniacal smell, and the 
deafening noise, continually penetrated by loud separate sounds which have a startling 
Tesemblance to the human voice, make a walk through the rookery neither easy nor 
pleasant. 

"The penguin is thickly covered with the closest felting of down and feathers except 
a longitudinal band, which in the female, extends along the middle line of the lower part 
of the abdomen, and which at all events in the breeding season, is without feathers. The 
bird seats herself almost upright upon her eggs, supported by the feet and the stiff feathers 
•of the tail, the feathers of the abdomen drawn apart and the naked band directly applied 
to the eggs, doubtless with the object of bringing them into immediate contact with the 
source of warmth. The female and the male sit by turns; but the featherless space, if 



506 AlVIERICA^ EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

dant bird over this entire stretch of the ocean. It takes company with 
a vessel on its leaving San Francisco, and follows it to the neighborhood 

present, is not nearly so marked in the male. When they shift sitters they sidle up close 
together, and the change is made so rapidly that the eggs are scarcely uncovered for a 
moment. The young, which are hatched in about six weeks, are curious-looking little 
things covered with black down. 

" There seems to be little doubt that penguins properly belong to the sea, which they 
inhabit within moderate distances of the shore, and they only come to the land to breed 
and moult, and for the young to develop sufficiently to become independent. But all this 
takes so long that the birds are practically the greater part of their time about the shore. 
We have seen no reason as yet to question the old notion that their presence is an indica- 
tion that land is not very far off. 

^' Eudyptes Chrysocoina is the only species found in the Tristan d'Acunha group. 
The males and females are of equal size, but the males may be readily distinguished by 
their stouter beaks. From the middle of April till the last week in July there are no pen- 
guins on Inaccessible Island. In the end of July the males begin to come ashore; at first 
in twos and threes, and then in larger numbers, all fat and in the best plumage and con- 
dition. They lie lazily about the shore for a day or two, and then begin to prepare the 
nests. The females arrive in the middle of August, and repair at once to the tussock- 
brake. A fortnight later they lay two, rarely three, eggs, pale blue, very round in shape, 
and about the size of a turkey's egg. It is singular that one of the two eggs is almost con- 
stantly considerably larger than the other. One or the other of the old birds now spends most 
of its time at sea, fishing, and the young are fed, as in most sea-birds, from the crop of the 
parents. In December young and old leave the land, and remain at sea for about a fortnight, 
after which the moulting season commences. They now spread themselves about the cliffs 
and along the shore, often climbing in their uncouth way, into places which one would have 
imagined inaccessible to them. Early in April they all take their departure." 

Of the Albatross he says: "There are three species of albatross on Inaccessible Island: 
the wandering albatross, Diomedea exulans ; the mollymawk, which appears to be here, 
D. Chlororhyncha, though the name is given by the sealers to different species, — certainly 
further south to D. Melanophrys ; and the piew, D. fidiginosa. About two hundred 
couples of the wandering albatross visit the island. They arrive and alight singly on the 
upper plateau early in December, and build a circular nest of grass and clay, about a foot 
high, and two feet or so in diameter, in an open space free from tussock grass, where the 
bird has room to expand his wonderful wings and rise into the air. The female lays one egg 
in the middle of January, about the size of a swan's, white with a band of small brick-red 
spots round the wider end. The great albatross leaves the island in the month of July. 

Lieutenant Spry, E. N. of the "Challenger," writing of this same visit, says that 
the whole of the wet, sodden flat lands was studded with large white albatrosses sitting on 
their nests. These magnificent birds covered the ground in great numbers. It was evi- 
dently the commencement of the breeding season, as few eggs were obtainable. " These 
splendid birds weighing twenty pounds, and measuring from eleven to twelve feet from 
tip to tip of wing, seen to such advantage while in their glory at sea as they sweep so 
gracefully through the air, are altogether out of their element on shore. In order to rise 
again after settling on the land, they are obliged to run some distance before they obtain 
sufficient velocity for the air to get under their wings and allow them to feel themselves 
masters of the situation." 






THE "GONY OF THE NORTH PACIFIC. 



507 



of the Aleutian Islands, where it disappears ; and, as we noted in Octo- 
ber, 1881, soon after we left Ounalaska these birds appeared and were 
with us continually in pleasant or stormy weather, until we approached 
San Francisco. The majority seen were young, the light-colored birds 
being observed only at intervals. Nearly all are dark, smoky brown, 
but here and there may be seen one with a ring of white feathers 




THE ALBATROSS. 



around the rump at the base of the tail ; and all have a marked line of 
white surrounding the base of the bill. Those with the white on the 
tail almost invariably have a white spot under each eye. The graceful 
evolutions of these birds afford one of the most pleasing sights during 
a voyage across the North Pacific, and they are a source of continual 
interest during the otherwise monotonous passage." The black-footed 
albatross and another species, Diomedea Brachyura^ the short-tailed, 
appear to wander occasionally even into the Arctic Ocean. (Cruise 
of the " Corwin," of 1881.) 

The graceful evolutions of the bird attract the mariner in both the 
Northern and the Southern Seas. 



508 AlVIEEICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The lines of Coleridge seem to come unbidden before one, — 

'' The ice was here, the ice was there. 
The ice was all around, 
It crack'd, and growl'd, and roar'd and howl'd, 
Like noises in a swound \ 



"Till a great sea-bird called the 
Albatross came througb the snow-fog, 
and was received with great joy and 
hospitality." 



At length did cross an Albatross 
Thorough the fog it came; 

As if it had been a Christian soul, 
We hailed it in God's name. 



" And lo ! the Albatross proveth a 
bird of good omen, and followeth the 
ship as it returned northward through 
fog and floating ice." 



It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 
And round and round it flew : 

The ice did split with a thunder-fit ; 
The helmsman steered us through ! 

And a good south wind sprung up behind, 

The Albatross did follow. 
And every day, for food or play. 

Came to the mariners' hollo I 



In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, 

It perched for vespers nine ; 
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, 

Glimmered the white moonshine." 

— Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. 



LAND DISCOVERED. 

When the three ships lay near each other, January 16, before the 
occurrence of the gale which has been noted, albatrosses. Cape pigeons, 
and petrels were seen in large numbers ; and appearances, believed at 
the time to be land, w^ere visible from all the three ships. " The com- 
parison of these observations," says Wilkes, "'when taken in connection 
with the more positive proofs of its existence, Jias left no doubt that the 
appearance was not deceptive. From this day, therefore, we date the 
discovery which is claimed for the squadron." The Lieutenant made a 
sketch of what he himself saw, giving this sketch in his Narrative of the 
Expedition ; on the " Porpoise," Lieutenant-Commanding Ringgold 
reported that after an hour's close observation to see whether the sun 
in his decline would change the color of the large, dark object seen 
over the field-ice, and resembling a mountain, it remained the same 



DISAPPOINTMENT BAY. 509 

with a cloud over it like that which hovers over high land. He was 
thoroughl}' of the opinion that it was an island surrounded by ice-fields. 
On the " Peacock " also, Passed-Midshipmen Eld and Reynolds reported 
to Hudson land seen from the masthead, — a statement afterward re- 
newed on their return to the United States. " The mountains could 
be distinctly seen stretching over the ice to the southwest." Two 
peaks especially were distinctly visible ; the sun shone brightly upon 
ridge after ridge. 

On the 19th land was again visible from the " Vincennes," and Lieu- 
tenant (late Admiral) Alden reported it twice to Lieutenant Wilkes. 
The ships were in lat. 66^ 20' S., long. 154° 30' E. ; at 3.30 p. M. land 
seen by all on board the " Peacock " appeared to be three thousand feet 
in height. Shortly after this interesting event, the " Peacock " made a 
narrow escape from entire destruction, striking, on the 24th, with her 
larboard quarter on an ice floe, with such force as to carry away her 
spanker boom, stern boat, spar-deck bulwarks, knee binding the davit to 
the taffi?ail, and her stanchions as far as the gangway. Happily, rebound- 
ing from the shock, she cleared the ice, barely, however, escaping a greater 
danger by the falling of a mass of ice and snow which would have 
crushed her had she not been a half length out of the line of the berg. 
Hudson was compelled to return north to Sydney. 

January 23d, the '' Vincennes " again steered south, entering an 
open water space, but by midnight reached its limit. The appearance 
of land was observed on either hand east and west. But foiled in this 
attempt to reach what Wilkes now^ believed to be a continent, he stood 
out of the ba}', naming it Disappointment Bay, by which name it still 
appears on the charts. A gale of unusual violence prevailing from the 
southwest and southeast during thirty hours of the days January 29 
to 31, the Medical Officers of the " Vincennes " after its moderirting, 
found the sanitary condition of the ship such as to demand of them a 
special report which they made to the Commander, with the opinion 
that a few more days of such exposure as the crew had already under- 
gone would reduce their number, by sickness, to such an extent as to 
hazard the safety of the ship and the lives of all on board. The Com- 
mander asked the opinion of the ward-room officers on this judgment 



510 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of the surgeons ; but not deeming that there was sufficient cause for 
departing from his original plan of passing along to the rendezvous 
appointed for the squadron, again steered south, and continued his 
course along the icy barrier. 

February 2, the " Vincennes " and the " Porpoise " were steering 
again to the southward among ice islands, the land still in sight and 
with the same lofty appearance as before. Icy cliffs from one hundred 
and fifty to two hundred feet in height bounded it on all sides ; there 
was no appearance whatever of rocks ; all was covered with ice and 
snow. No soundings were had with one hundred and fifty fathoms, 
although the water was much discolored, in recording which, Wilkes 
says, "The badness of the sea-line was a great annoyance to us, for 
deeper soundings would probably have obtained bottom. The land 
still trended to the west as far as the eye could reach, and continued 
to exhibit the same character as before." The longitude was now 137" 
02' E., lat. 66'^ 12' S., the magnetic declination westwardly. Within 
the last few days the sick list increased to twenty ; ulcers caused by 
the least scratch were prevalent. 

On the 7th, many whales, penguins, flocks of birds, and some seals 
were reported ; the outline of high land could be well distinguished 
beyond the perpendicular icy barrier. At the trend of the land here, 
Wilkes named a point Cape Carr, after the first Lieutenant of the 
" Vincennes," its position was long. 131° 40' E., lat. 64° 49' S. 

" On the 9th," says Wilkes, " we had the finest day we had yet ex- 
perienced on this coast ; the wind had veered from the east to the south- 
west, and given us a clear, bracing, and wholesome atmosphere. The 
barrier exhibited the same appearance as yesterday. Our longitude 
was 125° 19' E., lat. 65° 08' S., variation 32° 45' westerly. The current 
was tried but none found ; the pot was only visible at five fathoms, the 
color of the water a dirty green ; the dip sector gave 3' 15". I never 
saw a clearer horizon, or one better defined, than we had to the north- 
ward. The icy barrier really was beautiful. At midnight we had a 
splendid display of the aurora Australis, extending all around the 
northern horizon from west-by-north to east-northeast. Before its 
appearance a few clouds only were seen in the southeast, on which 



THE ICE BARRIER. 511 

the setting sun cast a red tint that barely rendered them visible. The 
horizon, with this exception, appeared clear and well defined. The 
spurs or brushes of light frequently reached the zenith, converging to 
a point near it. 

"Althougli no clouds could be seen in the direction of the aurora 
before or after its appearance, yet when it was first seen, there appeared 
clouds of the form of massive cumuli, tinged with pale yellow, and be- 
hind them arose brilliant red, purple, orange, and yellow tints, stream- 
ing upwards in innumerable radiations, with all the shades that a 
combination of these colors could effect. In its most brilliant state it 
lasted about twenty minutes. The gold-leaf electrometer was tried but 
without being affected; the instrument, however, was not very sensi- 
tive. Being somcAvhat surprised at the vast mass of cumuli which 
appeared during the continuance of the aurora, I watched after its dis- 
appearance until daylight, but could see only a few clouds ; I am 
therefore inclined to impute the phenomenon to some deception caused 
by the light of the aurora. The apparent altitude of these clouds 
was 8". 

"Running close along the barrier, which continued of the same char- 
acter, although more broken than yesterday, we saw an appearance of 
land, although indistinctly, to the southward. The water was of the 
same color here as before, and the wind being from the southeast, we 
made some progress, and found ourselves in long. 122° 35' E., lat. 65° 
27' S., the variation had now increased to 44° 38' westerly. No aurora 
was seen this night, although it was looked for anxiously. 

'' The barometer had been stationary at 29.080 in. for the last three 
days ; it now began to fall ; the temperature of the air was 31°, of the 
water 32°. The fall of the barometer was soon followed by snow and 
thick Aveather. The trending of the barrier had been southwQst-by- 
west, and a good deal of ice-floe had been met with, which we ran 
through. The sea was quite smooth, and many icebergs were enclosed 
in the barrier which was very compact, and composed of flat fields. 

"During the 12th we had pleasant weather, and at 2 a.m. filled away. 
At 8 A.M. land was reported to the southwest. Keeping along the 
barrier, and increasing our latitude, I again had hopes of getting near 



512 AMERICAN EXPLOEATIOKS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the land. We passed through great quantities of large floe-ice until 
1 p. M. when the solid barrier prevented our further progress. Land 
was now distinctly seen from eighteen to twenty miles distant, bearing 
from south-southeast to southwest — a lofty mountain range covered 
with snow, though showing many ridges and indentations. I laid the 
ship to for three hours, in hopes of discovering some opening or move- 
ment in the ice, but none was experienced. I tried the current, but 
found none. The water was of a dark, dirty green. We sounded with 
the wire line in two hundred and fifty fathoms, and found no bottom. 
The temperature at that depth was 30^°, of the air 31°. The barrier 
had in places the appearance of being broken up, and we had decreased 
our longitude to 112° 16' 12" E., while our latitude was 64° 57' S. This 
puts the land in about 63° 20' S., and its trending nearly east and west. 
The line of the icy barrier was generally uniform, although it was 
occasionally pierced with deep bays. 

"The 14th was remarkably clear and the land very distinct. By 
measurement we made the extent of coast of the Antarctic Continent 
then in sight seventy-five miles, and by approximate measurement 
three thousand feet high. On running in, several icebergs were passed, 
which were greatly discolored with earth ; on effecting a landing on an 
ice island, the party from the ships' boats found embedded in it gravel, 
sand, mud, and boulders, the largest of which was about five or six feet 
in diameter. Many specimens were obtained, and it was amusing to 
see the eagerness and desire of all hands to possess themselves of a 
piece of the Antarctic Continent." On the 17th further progress to 
the westward was cut off and the squadron obliged to retrace its steps, 
a large number of whales were seen of the fin-back species and of 
extraordinary size ; their close approach was proof that they had never 
bcien exposed to the pursuit of skilful hunters. Their blowings re- 
sembled that of a number of locomotives. 

The Aurora Australis again appeared in most brilliant form, rays 
from the horizon to the zenith in all directions in the most bril- 
liant coruscations ; others proceeding as if from a point in the zenith, 
flashed in brilliant pencillings of light, like sparks of electric fluid in 
vacuo^ and reappeared again to vanish ; forming themselves into one 



CHART SENT TO ROSS. 513 

body, like an umbrella, or fan, shut up ; they showed all the prismatic 
colors at once in quick succession. So remarkable was the phenome- 
non that even the sailors were constantly exclaiming in admiration of 
its brilliancy. The best position in which to view it was by lying flat 
upon the deck, and looking up. The electrometer was tried, but no 
effect perceived. The star Canopus was in the zenith at the time, and 
though visible through the aurora, was much diminished in bi^ightness. 
On this night also the moon was partially eclipsed. 

Having reached 97° east, where the "Vincennes " found the ice trend- 
ing to the northward, the ship followed it closely to within a few miles 
of the position where Cook was stopped by the barrier in 1773. The 
weather was now stormy, and the season far advanced ; Wilkes bore up 
for Sydney, where he learned that news had been received of the dis- 
covery by the English sealer, " Bellamy,'' of land, in long. 165° E., south 
of and near the position where the "Vincennes" had struck the icy 
barrier. He also heard that Captain Sir James Ross was expected from 
England, and, for the benefit of his exploring squadron, forwarded to 
Captain Ross a tracing of the chart prepared as the American squadron 
had passed along the barrier, laying down the land not only where it 
had actually been determined to exist, but those places in which every 
appearance denoted its existence, forming almost a continuous line 
from long. 160° to 97' East. This chart, with Wilkes' notes and ex- 
perience, and the supposed position of Bellamy's Islands, was received 
by Ross at Hobart Town some months previous to his going South. In 
connection with the statement of this fact, Wilkes seems very justly to 
have expressed his surprise that Captain Ross afterward should have 
asserted that he had run over a clear ocean where he (Wilkes) had 
1-aid down the land — Bellamy's — which an examination of the chart 
would have assured him had never been claimed by the "Vincennes." 
He also remarks that " on reference to Captain Ross's chart and track 
it will be seen that he did not approach near enough to our positions 
either to determine errors or verify results, and without imputing any 
intentional misrepresentation it would seem somewhat unusual that on 
the Captain's chart the discoveries of others (though of much less 
importance) should be misrepresented, while those of the American 



514 AT^rERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Expedition were omitted, when it is known lie was in possession of our 
operations more fully than those of others." 

It is to be regretted that this controversy occurred, as Avell as the 
reported declining by the French discovery ships under D'Urville, to 
recognize in this region the flag of the U. S. Steamer, "Peacock ; " it 
was thought still more remarkable even in England that Sir James 
Ross should have said that he "would have expected the national pride 
of both the American and French Commanders to have caused them 
rather to choose any other path for penetrating southward than the 
place for the exploration of which his expedition was preparing." 
Referring to this last statement the North British Review (vol. viii. 
1847-48) says : " We cannot concur with our excellent author in 
blaming either the French, or American Commander. The British 
Expedition might never have sailed, or might never have reached its 
destination; and in such an event, the commanders could never have 
justified themselves to their respective governments, had they omitted, 
from any feelings of delicacy, to take the best path to the Antarctic 
Pole." The tribute from the Royal Geographical Society, London, 
which here follows, is an example of the generous and just sentiments 
entertained by that society and is expressive of the general feeling of 
explorers and geographers, and Sir James Ross himself has testified the 
merit of the U.S. Expedition and of its commander in the language 
which follows the address. Mr. W. Hamilton, who, as President of 
the Royal Geographical Society, May 22, 1848, presented to the U. S. 
Minister, Mr. Bancroft, the gold medal awarded by the society to 
Captain Wilkes, said to the society : — 

" Gentlemen, — You have just heard the announcement that the Council has 
awarded the, Founder's medal to Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy, for the 
zeal and intelligence with which he carried out the Scientific Exploring Expedition 
entrusted to him by tlie Government of the United States in the years 1838- 
1842; and for the volumes which he has published, detailing the narrative of that 
expedition. 

" It therefore becomes my duty to endeavor to give you some account of the per- 
formances of the gallant officer, and of the services which he has rendered to the 
progress of geography. It must be remembered that this was the first expedition 
ever fitted out by the Government of the United States for scientific purposes. 
Greater difficulties must, therefore, be supposed to have attended its organization 



THE MEDAL AWARDED. 515 

than would have been the case with more experience ; on the other hand, merit the 
of success is proportionally increased. 

" The expedition left the Hampton Roads on the 17th of August, 1838, and its 
first scientific operation was the establishment of an observatory at Orange Harbor, 
in Terra del Fuego; here some of the vessels remained while others w^ere detached 
to the westward, and Captain Wilkes himself proceeded on the 2oth of February to 
the South, for the purpose of exploring the southeast side of Palmer''s Land. After 
reaching lat. 63° 25' S., finding the season too far advanced to make any progress 
against the ice, he turned his ship's head to the North, and the whole squadron was 
soon collected at Valparaiso. Here another observatory was established. A scientific 
party visited the bank of snow from which the city is supplied, on one of the outlying 
ranges of the Cordilleras, the principal heights of which rose nearly four thousand 
feet above them ; others visited the mines of Chili. They then proceeded to the 
coasts of Peru, and thence, after a visit to the interior and to the ruins of Pacha- 
camac, commenced their explorations in the Pacific. 

'♦ On the 26th of December, 1839, they left Sydney, and first fell in with the ice 
on the 10th of January, 1840, in lat. 61° 8' S., and long. 162° 32' E. ; and on the 11th 
some of the ofiicers were confident they saw indications of land. Captain Wilkes 
does not rely much on this; but on the 16th these appearances became more posi- 
tive, and on the 19th they distinctly saw land in long. 154° 30' E., lat. 66° 20' S. 
Captain Wilkes, however, only dates the discovery which he claims for his expedi- 
tion from the land seen on the 16th. I mention this the more anxiously on this 
occasion on account of the controversy Avhich has arisen between him and Sir James 
Ross who sailed over the spot where land was supposed to have been seen on the 
11th ; to this, however, I wish to allude as lightly as possible, convinced as I am, 
that both these gallant ofiicers have only been anxious to establish the truth, and to 
advance the cause of science. Undoubtedly on the tracing which Captain Wilkes 
furnished to Sir James Ross, the land supposed to have been seen on the 11th of 
January is sketched in, and, as a measure of precaution, it was perhaps prudent in 
Captain Wilkes so to do; it would have been more satisfactory if he could have 
stated to Sir James Ross, as he had done in his published account, on what slight and 
imperfect evidence its existence in that position was laid down. After continuing 
his explorations of the Antarctic Continent as far to the westward as long. 97° E., 
Captain Wilkes finding his jDrovisions short and the season far advanced, turned his 
ship's head to the North and quitted these frozen latitudes. ... I regret that it is 
impossible, within the limits of this address, to do justice to the contents of the five 
volumes in which Captain Wilkes has described the progress of the expeditio/i ; but 
I trust I have done enough to show that the exertions of Captain Wilkes and the 
results of the expedition intrusted to him, have in every respect been such as to 
entitle him to the highest mark of distinction which it is in the power of this society 
to bestow." 

In his " Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and 
Antarctic Regions," Vol. I., p. 116, Sir James Ross says : — 



516 a:merican explorations in the ice zones. 

" The arduous and persevering exertions of the American Exploring 
Expedition, continued throughout a period of more than six weeks 
under circumstances of great peril and hardship, cannot fail to reflect 
the highest credit on those engaged in the enterprise, and excite the 
admiration of all who are in the smallest degree acquainted with the 
laborious nature of an icy navigation." 

Ross was more successful than either D'Urville or Wilkes. The 
French commander had been the first to propose an Antarctic Expedi- 
tion. Ross's squadron was better fitted for ice navigation, and the 
circumstances attending the date of his cruise were more favorable. He 
penetrated to 78° 11', discovering what he named Victoria Land, and 
following its coast from 70° to 79° S. lat. On its northern extremity he 
discovered two active volcanoes, — Mount Erebus, 12,360 feet, and Mount 
Terror, 10,880 feet in height, — together with other elevations along a 
coast, steep, rocky, and, like nearl}^ all the Antarctic lands, utterly bare 
of all but ice or snow. He assigned the position of the S. Magnetic 
Pole to lat. 75° 5' S. ; long. 154° 8' E.* His whole line of discovery 
retains a place on the admiralty charts. 

* For the better information of ttie general reader the following notes are given in re- 
gard to the Dip and the Variation of the Needle. In regard to the dip, " Kobert Norman 
first discovered in 1576 that if a bar of steel be supported on its centre of gravity so 
that it vi^ill remain necessarily in any position in which it is placed, it will, after having 
been magnetized, swing into the magnetic meridian and place its length at an angle 
with the horizon. In the northern magnetic hemisphere the north end of the needle 
points downward, making, for example, at New York, an angle of about 73° with the 
horizon; in the southern magnetic hemisphere the south pole of the magnet points 
downward. This phenomenon is called the dip of the needle. We shall proceed to 
examine the behavior of such a needle when it is carried over the surface of the earth. 
Proceeding north and to the west of New York, we shall observe the north end of the 
needle dipping more and more, until, having reached a N. lat. of 70° 5', and a W. long, 
of 96° 46', we may have attained the position where Commander James Eoss in 1832 
first observed the needle taking an exactly perpendicular position. This point is called 
the north magnetic pole of the earth. It is inferred from observations on the dip in the 
Southern Hemisphere that a southern magnetic pole — where the needle will be vertical 
with its south pole downward — exists about lat. S. 70', and long. 125° E. of Greenwich. 
This would place this pole in the territory discovered by our countryman, Wilkes. No 
explorer, however, has reached the south magnetic pole." — Johnson^ s Encyclopedia. 

In regard to the variation of the compass, it is matter of observation that the mag- 
net when delicately suspended is always shifting its direction. The declination is called 
west when the north end of the magnet points to the west of true north, and east when 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MUSEUM. 517 

Of the reported discovery of an Antarctic Continent by Wilkes the 
line will be found laid down on the Antarctic charts of the U. S. Hydro- 
graphic Office, as taken from his Official Report. Geographers at 
present, however, believe that in place of the existence of an unbroken 
continental coast line there is a chain of islands in this quarter of the 
Antarctic extending from the 95th to the 150th meridian. As in the 
case of Palmer's Land, which has been referred to, so in regard also 
to the discoveries by Wilkes, very little credit is given on the English 
charts. 

RESEARCHES AND COLLECTIONS. 

Whatever impartial judgment may be passed upon these reported 
discoveries as to their extent or their geographical value in such almost 
unapproachable regions, the scientific researches and the extensive col- 
lections made by the expedition are of much practical value to science 
and to navigation. The late Professor Henry in his Annual Report of 
the Smithsonian Institution to the Board of Regents for the year 1871, 
while acknowledging the receipt of several valued collections of speci- 
mens for the National Museum (among them those donated by Captain 
C. F. Hall from his expedition of 1864-69) says of the collection 
brought home by Lieutenant Wilkes, that " the basis of the National 
Museum is the collection of specimens of the United States Exploring 
Expedition under Captain, now Admiral, Wilkes, originally deposited 
in the Patent Office, and transferred to the Smithsonian in 1858." In 
his Report for the year 1867, when enumerating the collections in the 
Museum at that date, he had said: "The collections made by the 
Naval Expedition, 1838-42, are supposed greatly to exceed those of 
any other similar character fitted out by any government; no published 
series of results comparing in magnitude with that issued under the 
direction of the Joint Library Committees of Congress. The collec- 

it points east of true north. Observations for this variation from the true north, are a 
most important element in navigation, the want of these having doubtless wrecked many 
a misguided ship. The variation at Boston in 1877 was 11° 36' W. 

For a most interesting and full historical and mathematical discussion of both dip and 
variation, see Appendix 12, "Keport of U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for 1882." — 
C. A. Schott. 



518 AMERICAI^ EXPLORATIONS IK THE ICE ZONES. 

tions made embrace full series of the animals, plants, minerals, and 
ethnological material of the regions visited. They not only afford a 
basis for a comparison of the different modes of life and stages of 
advancement among existing tribes, but an important means of deter- 
mining the ethnological relations of the natives of the present day to 
those whose ancient remains lie thickly strewn over our whole conti- 
nent. For example, implements of stone and of bone are almost every 
where found, the workmanship of races that have long since disappeared^ 
and of which the use would be difficult of determination, were not 
similar implements, as to form and material, found in actual use at the 
present day among savages, particularly those inhabiting the various 
islands of the Pacific Ocean." 

Professor Henry is at pains to state that, "the Museum itself is not an 
Institution having for its object the gratification of the merely curious, 
but is intended to embrace a collection of specimens of nature and 
art which shall exhibit the natural resources and industries of the 
country, or to present at one view the materials essential to the condi- 
tion of high civilization which exists in the different States of the 
American Union ; to show the various processes of manufacture which 
have been adopted by us, as well as those used in foreign countries ; in 
short, to form a great educational establishment by means of which the 
inhabitants of our own country, as well as those of foreign lands who 
visit our shores, may be informed as to the means which exist in the 
United States for enjoyment of human life in the present, and the 
improvement of these means in the future." In this connection the 
reader is referred to the recent Reports of the Smithsonian now in 
charge of Professor S. F. Baird, for an account of the educational char- 
acter of this museum in its increasing departments. A recent arrange- 
ment made under the sanction of Secretary Chandler, assigns some of 
the junior Naval Officers to temporary duty at the Museum ; a most 
valuable training being thus provided for their future usefulness as 
explorers 'in the several branches of science, contributions to which 
they will be led to secure when at sea and in foreign lands. The total 
number of specimens in the Museum, not yet classified, already ex- 
ceeds 30,000. 



WILKES' ADDRESS. 519 

RESULTS OF THE CKUISE ilEPORTED BY LIEUTENANT WILKES. 

Of the chief results of the Expedition, Lieutenant Wilkes in his Nar- 
rative and in an Address delivered June 20, 1882, before the National 
Institute, the predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution, thus speaks: — 

"The evidence that an extensive continent lies within the 'icy bar- 
rier must have appeared in the account of my proceedings, but will be, 
I think, more forcibly exhibited by a comparison with the aspect of 
other lands in the same southern parallel. Palmer's Land, for instance, 
which is in like manner invested with ice, is so at certain seasons of the 
year only, while at others it is quite clear, because strong currents pre- 
vail there, which sweep the ice off to the northeast. Along the Antarc- 
tic continent for the whole distance explored, which is upwards of one 
thousand five hundred miles, no open strait is found. The coast, where 
the ice permitted approach, was found enveloped with a perpendicular 
barrier, in some cases unbroken for fifty miles. If there was only a 
chain of islands, the outline of the ice would undoubtedly be of another 
form ; and it is scarcely to be conceived that so long a chain could ex- 
tend so nearly in the same parallel of latitude. The land has none of 
the abruptness of termination that the islands of high southern lati- 
tude exhibit ; and I am satisfied that it exists in one uninterrupted line 
of coast from Ringgold's Knoll, in the east, to Enderby's Land in the 
west ; that the coast (at long. 95° E.) trends to the north, and this will 
account for the icy barrier existing, with little alternation, where it was 
seen by Cook in 1773. The vast number of ice islands conclusively 
points out that there is some extensive nucleus which retains them in 
their position ; for I can see no reason why the ice should not be dis- 
engaged from islands, if they were such, as happens in all other cases 
in like latitudes. The formation of the coast is different from v^hat 
would probably be found near islands, soundings being obtained in 
comparatively shoal Mater ; and the color of the water also indicates 
that it is not like other southern lands, abrupt and precipitous. This 
cause is sufficient to retain the huge masses of ice by their being 
attached by their lower surfaces instead of their sides only." Of the 
scientific work of the Expedition, he says : — 



520 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

" At all the important points of the cruise an observatory was estab- 
lished, and the longitude determined by moon-culminating stars in con- 
nection with similar observations at Cambridge (Mass.) University, 
by Professor Bond, and at Washington, by Lieutenant Gilliss. The 
latitude was deduced by circummeridian observations of the sun and 
stars ; meridian distances were carried throughout the route by chron- 
ometers from and to well established points ; every opportunity was 
taken to determine the true position of islands, reefs, etc., by observa- 
tions made on shore ; the labors in hydrography were extensive ; in all 
the explorations, the constant aim was to obtain useful results ; partic- 
ular attention was paid to ascertain whether wood, water, and what 
kind of refreshments (if any) could be had; anchorages were looked 
for and surveyed ; and the character of the natives and the kind of 
treatment that may be expected from them. 

"In magnetism, observations were made at fifty-seven stations, for 
dip and intensity ; and at every point where the ships remained a suf- 
ficient time, for diurnal variation ; the dip was observed at sea fre- 
quently, and the ship's head always kept north and south whilst the 
observations were making ; very many attempts were made to observe 
the intensity at sea, both by horizontal and vertical vibrations, but 
Wilkes was never able to satisfy himself with the results, whatever 
others may have done. 

"For the determination of the Southern Magnetic Pole, he had 
variation observations from 35° easterly variation to 59° west, between 
the longitudes of 9T° and 165° east, nearly on the same parallel of lati- 
tude ; which will give numerous convergent lines through that space for 
its determination ; the greatest dip was 87° 30'. The summit of Mouna 
Loa, thirteen thousand four hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
was among the magnetic stations ; the pendulums were swung at six 
stations, one of these at the summit of Mouna Loa and another at its 
foot ; full meteorological journals were kept duriijg the whole cruise — 
the hours of observation, 3 and 9 P. M., and 3 and 9 A. M. ; the tempera- 
ture at the masthead taken at the same hours ; that of the air and water 
every hour during the cruise, at sea and in port ; when in port, ther- 
mometers were sunk, and the temperature of springs, wells, and caves 
taken for tho mean temperature of the climate. 



COLLECTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS. 521 

"InlDOtany about ten thousand species were obtained, and from three 
to five specimens of each, all brought or sent home in a dried state. 
About one hundred specimens of living plants were brought home in 
cases ; among them several East India fruits and other plants from that 
region, supposed to be rarely found in European conservatories. 

"In the Geological and Mineralogical Departments, under Mr. Dana, 
much industry and research were expended; about eleven hundred 
species of Crustacea were figured ; among them many new forms illus- 
trative of general anatomy and physiology. In a word, extensive col- 
lections of specimens were made in all the Departments of Natural 
History." 

THE COLLECTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS. 

By a liberal appropriation, Congress promptly made provisions for 
the arrangement and preservation of the collections referred to, placing 
them first in the charge of the Patent Office, and annually appropriat- 
ing for their care the sum of $5,000. 

By very appreciative further appropriations, the publication of the 
Narrative of the Expedition was secured in five quarto volumes, and 
these were at different dates followed by the issue of eleven volumes, 
exhibiting some of the work done by the several gentlemen of the Scien- 
tific Corps. Parts of the work were unfortunately destroyed by fire. 

The volumes were published and distributed under special Acts or 
Kesolutions of Congress, primarily to the Libraries of Foreign Govern- 
ments and to those of the States of the Union. One copy was donated 
to the Commander of the Expedition, and one to Captain Hudson ; the 
distribution being made from the first, in accordance only with the 
Reports of the Joint Library Committee, in whose charge the volumes 
which may remain, still are. The list of all which have been publi&lied 
is as follows (Catalogue of Library of Congress, 1864) : 

Vols. 1-5. Narratives. 4to. With Atlas. 

Vol. 6. Ethnography and Philology. 4to. H. Hale. 

Vol. 7. Zoophytes. 4to. Atlas folio. J. D. Dana. 

Vol. 8. Mammalogy and Ornithology. 4to. Atlas folio. John Gossin. 

Vol. 12. Mollusca and Shells. 4to. Atlas folio. A. A. Gould. 

Vols. 13, 14. Crustacea. 2 vols. 4to. Atlas folio. J. D. Dana. 



522 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Vol. 15. Botany. (Part I.) Phanerogamia. 4to. Atlas folio. Asa Gray. 
Vol. 16. Botany. (Part II.) Cryptogamia, Filices, including Lycopodiaceae 

and Hydropterides. 4to. Atlas folio. W. D. Brackenridge. 
Vol. 20, Herpetology. 4to. Atlas folio. Prepared under the superintendence 

of Prof S. F. Baird. 
Atlas of Charts from the Surveys of the Expedition. 2 vols. Folio. 

A popular edition of the Narrative in five volumes, including also 
some of the notes of the scientific work, was issued in Philadelphia, 
under the supervision of Lieutenant Wilkes. This edition can still be 
procured at the book-stores. 



Note I. — In his larger edition of the Narrative, Lieutenant Wilkes has some 
notes on the ice formations in the Antarctic, possessing interest to the general reader 
as well as to the navigator. He says : — 

" Much inquiry and a strong desire has been evinced by geologists, to ascertain 
the extent to which these ice-islands travel, the boulders and masses of earth they 
transport, and the direction they take. 

" From my own observations and the information I have collected, there appears 
a great difference in the movements of these masses; in some years, great numbers 
of them have floated north from the Antarctic circle and even at times obstructed the 
navigation about the capes. The year 1832 was remarkable in this respect; many 
vessels bound round Cape Horn from the Pacific, were obliged to put back to Chili, 
in consequence of the dangers arising from ice; while, during the preceding and 
following years, little or none were seen ; this would lead to the belief, that great 
changes must take place in the higher latitudes, or the prevalence of some cause to 
detach the ice-islands from the barrier in such great quantities as to cover almost 
the entire section of the ocean south of lat. 50° S. Taking the early part of the 
(southern) spring, as the time of separation, we are enabled to make some estimate 
of the velocity with which they move ; many masters of vessels have met them, 
some six or seven hundred miles from the barrier, from sixty to eighty days after 
this period, which will give a near approximation to our results heretofore stated. 

" The season of 1839-40 was considered as an open one, from the large masses 
of ice that were met with in a low latitude, by vessels that arrived from Europe at 
Sydney ; many of them were seen as far north as lat. 42° S. 

" The causes that prevail to detach and carry them north are difficult to assign. 
I have referred to the most probable ones that would detach them from the parent 
mass in their formation. Our frequent trials of currents, as has been stated, did not 
give us the assurance that any existed ; but there is little doubt in my mind that they 
do prevail. I should not, however, look to a surface current as being the motive 
power that carries these immense masses at the rate they move ; comparatively 



NOTES. 523 

speaking, their great bulk is below the influence of any surface current, and the 
rapid drift of these masses by winds is still more improbable; therefore I conceive 
we must look to an under current as their great propeller. In one trial of the deep- 
sea thermometer, we found the temperature beneath four degrees warmer than the 
surface. Off Cape Horn, the under temperature was found as cold as among the ice 
itself; repeated experiments have shown the same to occur in the Arctic regions. 
From this I would draw the conclusion that changes are going on, and it appears to 
me to be very reasonable to suppose, that at periods, currents to and from' the Poles 
should at times exist ; it is true, we most generally find the latter to prevail, as far 
as our knowledge of facts extends, but we have not sufficient inform;ition to decide 
that there is not a reflow toward the Pole ; the very circumstance of the current set- 
ting from the higher latitudes, would seem a good argument that there must be some 
counter-current to maintain the level of the waters. These masses, then, are most 
probably carried away in the seasons when the polar streams are the strongest, and 
are borne along by them at the velocity w^ith which they move ; that these do not 
occur annually may be inferred from the absence of ice-islands in the lower latitudes ; 
and that it is not from the scarcity of them, those who shared the dangers of the 
Antarctic cruise, will, I have little doubt, be ready to testify; for, although great 
numbers of them studded the ocean that year, yet the narrative shows that vast 
numbers were left. 

" The specific gravity of the ice varies very much as might naturally be expected ; 
for while some of it is porous and of a snowy texture other islands are in great part 
composed of a compact, blue-flinty ice. This difference is occasioned by the latter 
becoming saturated with water, which afterward freezes. 

"On the ice there was usually a covering of about two feet of snow, which in 
places had upon it a crust of ice not strong enough to bear the weight of a man. 
Those ice-islands, which after having been once seen, were again passed through 
immediately after a gale, were observed to be changed in appearance ; but though 
for forty-eight hours a severe storm had been expei'ienced, they had not undergone 
so great a transformation as not to be recognized. They also appeared to have 
shifted their position with regard to one another, their former bias and tendings 
being broken up. 

" During our stay on the icy coast, I saw nothing of what is termed pack-ice, — 
that is pieces forced one upon the other by the action of the sea or currents." 

Note II. — The English Admiralty charts show that all along the southern part 
of the South Atlantic Ocean ice is found, brought by the Antarctic polar currents and 
reaching different parallels, according to the meridian on which it happens to float, 
as also according to the season of the year. During the southern summer, from 
January to March, the icebergs reach the highest points and sometimes are found 
nearly up to 40° S., between 20° and 25° W. 

Admiralty Chart No. 1,241, issued June 50, 1874, is an Ice Chart of the Southern 
Hemisphere, compiled from the voyages of Cook, Bellingshausen, Weddell, Foster, 
Biscoe, Balleny, D'Urville, Wilkes, and Ross, the chief explorers from the years 1772 



524 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

to 1841, and from other sources as late as 1865. The chart has been issued because 
of the adoption by modern navigators of routes approaching more or less to a great 
circle course, shortening the distance to and from Australia. The dangers to be 
apprehended from contact with the ice in these high latitudes is stated to be far 
greater than has been generally supposed. The vast disrupted masses drifted by the 
influence of winds and currents to lower latitudes have seriously embarrassed, de- 
layed, and imperilled navigation. "The greatest number of icebergs hitherto 
sighted," says Commodore Evans, R. N., the compiler of the Chart, "in the tracks 
of ordinary navigators, have been in the months of November, December, and Jan- 
uary, and the least in June and July, the proportions of those seen in these months 
to the number seen in December being as 1 to 13." The French Sailing Direc- 
tions of Labrosse, translated by Lieutenant J. W. Miller for U. S. Hydrographic Office, 
as well as the chart just referred to, give the latitude-limits of floating ice which from 
April 1 to October 1 is rarely to be found north of lat. 50° S., or even there except 
between the meridians 148'-' and 93° W. From October 1, stray bergs sometimes, 
though rarely, drift as far north as 40°. They are always to be feared during the 
southern winter, during which they constitute a real danger, and the principal dif- 
ficulty in making a passage from Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, or Tahiti, 
to Cape Horn. They are, however, most numerous in the southern summer when 
the nights are short. 

Jan. 1, 1867, Captain Guerin of the " St. Paul," sailing between 46° and 47° 
south, and 4° and 12° east, was completely surrounded by icebergs, the principal of 
which were from one hundred and sixty to three hundred and thirty feet high. 
Nothing had announced their approach, the thermometer showing no sudden change in 
their vicinity, and the only peculiarities noticed being thick fogs, the absence of 
birds, an unusually smooth sea, and some old pieces of wreck. A good ice chart will 
be found in Steiler's Atlas. 

Note III. — The general reader will not have failed to notice the diflerence in 
the ice formation, found in the Antarctic Ocean from those in the Arctic, and the dif- 
ference between those of the Greenland Seas and those north of Bering Straits. Bergs 
in the Antarctic have been sighted whose height was recorded by responsible cap- 
tains as from four hundred and twenty to nine hundred and sixty feet. The extent 
of the fields also exceeds that of the bergs in the north ; the largest field reported 
according to Towson (endorsed by Fitzroy), being sixty miles by forty. It was 
passed by twenty-one ships during the months of January to May. No icebergs ex- 
ceeding half the height here named have been seen in the Arctic, nor have masses 
of ice-fields of such extent been met with in the sea north of Bering Strait. 

"In another respect the Antarctic bergs exceed those of the North. The coloring 
of the crevasses, caves, and hollows of the icebergs of the Antarctic regions is of the 
deepest blue, a more powerful color than that seen on the ice of the Swiss glaciers. 
In the case of the bergs with all their sides exposed, no doubt a greater amount of 
light is able to penetrate than in glaciers where the light usually enters only at the 
top." — Voyageof the "■ Challenger.'''' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SUMMARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS, BENEFICIAL RESULTS. 

THE AMERICAN ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. — HIGHEST POINTS REACHED. — 
VALUE OF ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS ENDORSED BY WEYPRECHT, MAURY, 
HENRY, BACHE, BARROW, AND OSBORN. — METEOROLOGICAL STA- 
TIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. — THEIR PURPOSE DISTINCT FROM THE POLAR 
PROBLEM. — LIEUTENANT WEYPRECHT's PROPOSITION. — STATIONS 

under the international commission recommended by pro- 
fessor henry. — preliminary voyage of the " florence." — 
Sherman's and kumlien's reports. — signal service station 
at lady franklin bay. — unsuccessful attempts for relief. 

signal service station near point barrow. — preliminary 

reports. — geographical discovery. — benefits to the whale 
fisheries. — small number of lives lost in the expeditions. 
— further explorations. 

IN the first Chapter of this Volume it was said that although the origi- 
nal objects of the Explorations which would be discussed had not 
been secured, their incidental results have more than compensated 
for all expenditure of thought and money, and all of exposure and disap- 
pointment experienced by the explorers. The record of their labors 
which has now been made, must confirm, it is believed, this impartial 
judgment, which certainly is that expressed by some of the ablest and 
most trustworthy in scientific circles, both at home and abroad. Refer- 
ring to what has been thus far accomplished in the northern zone. Lieu- 
tenant Maury has said : "Voyages of discovery, with their fascinations 
and their charms, have led many a noble champion both into the torrid 
and frigid zones ; and notwithstanding the hardships, sufferings, and 
disasters to which northern parties have found themselves exposed, 
seafaring men, as science has advanced, have looked with deeper and 
deeper longings toward the mystic circles of the polar regions. There, 
icebergs are framed and glaciers launched. There the tides have their 
cradle ; the whales, their nursery. There the winds complete their cir- 

525 



526 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

cuits and the currents of the sea their round in the wonderful system 
of oceanic circulation. There the Aurora Borealis is lighted up and 
the trembling needle brought to rest ; and there, too, in the mazes of 
that mystic circle, terrestrial forces of occult power and of vast influ- 
ence upon the well-being of man are continually at play. Within the 
Arctic circle is the pole of the winds and the poles of the cold, the pole 
of the earth and of the magnet. It is a circle of mysteries ; and the 
desire to enter it, to explore its untrodden wastes and secret chambers, 
and to study its physical aspects, has grown into a longing. Noble 
daring has made Arctic ice and waters classic ground. It is no feverish 
excitement nor vain ambition that leads man there. It is a higher feel- 
ing, a holier motive, — a desire to look into the works of creation, to 
comprehend the economy of our planet, and to grow wiser and better 
by the knowledge." 

Yet higher authorities sustain the value of the explorations, as well 
as the interest inseparable from them. Those of Professors Bache and 
Henry only need be cited. Henry, in his Report as Secretary of the 
Smithsonian for the year 1858, quotes and accords with the judgment 
of Professor Bache, as expressed before the American Association, 
when he says that some of the most important contributions to our 
knowledge of natural history and physical phenomena were made by 
Doctor Kane, on the second Grinnell Expedition ; and this judgment 
of both the learned professors is expressed in terms as full and unquali- 
fied upon the explorations subsequently made by Doctor Hayes. 

For these expeditions to the Arctic Ocean, for those of Lieutenant 
Wilkes in the Antarctic, and indeed for every expedition sent forth 
under the auspices of the Government, special instructions have been 
successively laid down by their respective authorities, for the investiga- 
tion of such questions as the facilities of their journeyings by sea or 
by land should offer for the advancement of knowledge. The obser- 
vations of natural phenomena in newly-explored regions, and the col- 
lections of typical objects, were to be and have been, continuously and 
increasingly, matters commanding the labors and time of the numerous 
corps of scientists selected from the Army and Navy and from 
civil life. 



AMERTCAISr EXPEDITIONS. 



527 



To furnish a reply to many inquiries on the part of those interested 
in Arctic explorations, the dates of the publication of the chief volumes 
narrating these are given in the Appendix.* 

* The Table below presents a list of the American Arctic Expeditions which have ex- 
plored the northeast and northwest coast of America, via Baffin's Bay and Bering Straits. 

Table. 



Year. 



Ship. 



Commander. 



Position Reached. 



1850-52 
1853-55 
1855 . 

1855 . 

1860 . 
1860 . 
1864.-69 
1871-73 

1873 . 
1878 . 

1879-81 

1880 . 

1881 . 

1881 . 



1881 



Advance 
Rescue 

Advance 

Release 
Arctic . 



Yincennes . . . 

George Henry . . 
The United States, 
MonliCffUo - . * 

U. S. S. Polaris . . 

IT. S. S. Tigress . 

Juniata . . . . 
Land Expedition, 

Jeannette . . . 

U. S. S. Corwin (R. 
steamer) . . . 

Do. (Second cruise) 
U. S. S. Rodgers . 



U.S.S. Alliance. 



Lieut. DeHaven, U. S. K 
Lieut. Griffin, U. S. N" 

Dr. E. K. Kane . . 

Lieut. Hartstene, U. S. IS". 
Lieut. Simms, U. S. N. 

Com. John Rodgers 

Charles F. Hall 

I. I. Hayes . . 

Charles F. Hall 

Charles F. Hall 

Com. J. A. Greer 

Com. D. L. Braine 
Lieut. Schwatka, U. S. N. 

Lieut. De Long .... 

Capt. C. L. Hooper . . 
Capt. C. L. Hooper . . 

Lieut. R. M. Berry . . 



In the Eastern Hemisphere, 
Capt.G. H. Wadleigh . . 



( Beechey Island, lat. 75° 24' 

By sledges, lat. 80° 56' K 
Relief of Kane, lat. 78° 32' 

Through Bering Straits, lat. 

72° 5' N. 

Frobisher Bay, lat. 62° K 

By sledge, lat. 81° 35' N. 

King William's Land. 

By ship, lat. 82° 16' N. 

Tessiussak, Greenland. 

Tessiussak, Greenland. 
King William's Land. 

North of Bering Straits, 
crushed June 13, 1881, lat. 
77° 14' 57" K, long. 154° 
58' 45" E. 

Relief of the Jeannette, lat. 
70° 55'^., long. 173° 50' E. 

Wrangell Land. 

Relief of Jeannette, lat, 73° 
28'N.,long.l79°05'02"E. 
(Burned in St. Lawrence 
Bay, Nov. 30, 1881.) 



( Lat. 80° 10' K, long. 11° 22' 
I E., Relief of Jeannette. 



Closing the list of those which have gone out under the Government of the United 
States, are the Arctic Meteorological Stations for the United States Signal Service ; 

Under Lieutenant A. W. Greely, U. S. A., Lady Franklin Bay, lat. 81° 44' N., Ion. 
64° 30' W ; 

Under Lieutenant P. H. Ray, U. S. A., Point Barrow, Alaska, lat. 71° 18' N., Ion. 156° 
24' W. 

These Expeditions had for their primary objects meteorological observations in con- 
nection with the other stations of the International Polar Commission. 



528 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

THE COLLECTIONS OF ILLUSTEATIVE SPECIMENS. 

Reference has already been made, in the narrative of the Wilkes 
Expedition, to the extent and value of the collections brought home 
by that expedition, and accredited by Professor Henry as the basis of 
the present extensive National Museum at Washington. 

Of the Bering Straits Expedition under Lieutenant (late Admiral) 
Rodgers, the Smithsonian Report of 1856 says : " The natural history re- 
sults were of great magnitude, and embraced many new and rare species ; 
the collections made by the naturalists, Stimpson and Wright, being 
made first under Commander Ringgold in the South Pacific and China 
Seas and afterward largely increased by those secured around Japan, 
Kamtchatka, in the Straits, and on the California coast." " The whole 
of a very rich collection of invertebrates, made in the Arctic Seas," says 
Professor Henry, " was dredged from the ' Vincennes,' under the imme- 
diate superintendence of Captain Rodgers himself, while the Scientific 
Corps were engaged in another portion of Bering Straits." To these 
valued additions were also made by the Japan Expedition, under Com- 
modore Perry ; by Captain Page, in his exploration and survey of the 
La Plata and its tributaries; by Lieutenants Herndon and Gibbon, 
from their work on the Amazon ; by Captain Lynch, from the Dead 
Sea ; and by C. F. Hall, from each of the three expeditions that have 
been narrated in this volume. It would indeed be impossible to 
accredit here, with any justice, the labors of the very numerous explo- 
rations which have been made by our own countrymen within the 
progressive development of the great West, in the northern section of 
the continent, outside of the territory of the United States, and in 
the waters of the oceans and their indentations. The catalogues of 
the Institution founded at Washington by the noble liberalit}^ of the 
London philanthropist must be consulted ; in its Report for 1857 will 
be found a list of more than fifty of such expeditions, selections from 
the specimen contributions of which formed a part of the Exhibition 
in the Government Museum placed at the United States Centennial, 
Philadelphia, in 1876 ; but the exhibition, as well as the list now 
referred to, it is well understood, was but representative of the work 
accomplished by Army, Nav7/, and civil scientists. 



BAEROWS AND OSBOKN'S JUDGMENTS. 529 

So far from any forgetfulness, on the part of the explorers or their 
supporters, of higher results to be hoped for than the extension of 
geographical discovery, valuable as this itself is, Arctic history incon- 
testably shows a continuous line of expectancy of scientific results in 
other branches. There has been a general accord with the sentiments 
of Sir John Barrow, 1818, that if these voyages were to be prosecuted 
for the sake only of making the passage to China, their utility might 
fairly be questioned. " But," says Barrow, " when the acquisition of 
knowledge is the groundwork of all the instructions under which they 
are sent forth, the commanding officer is directed to cause constant 
observations to be made for the advancement of every branch of sci- 
ence — astronomy, navigation, hydrography, meteorology, including 
electricity and magnetism, and to make collections of subjects of nat- 
ural history — in short, to lose no opportunity of acquiring new and 
important information and discovery ; and when it is considered that 
these voyages give employment to officers and men, in time of peace, 
and produce officers and men not to be surpassed, perhaps not equalled, 
in any other branch of the service, the question, Cui hono f is readily 
answered, in the words of Queen Elizabeth's minister, 'Knowledge is 
power.' " 

To this judgment of Barrow, expressed at the revival of Arctic 
Exploration, may be added that of the late Admiral Sherard Osborn, 
R.N., confirming what our own Henry, and Bache, and Maury had said. 
"Those," said Osborn, "who assert that our labors and researches 
have merely added so many miles of unprofitable coast line to our 
charts, had better compare our knowledge of Arctic phenomena to-day 
with the theories enunciated by men of learning and repute a century 
ago. They should confront our knowledge of 1874 with that of 18,00 
upon the natural history, meteorology, climate, and winds of the 
Arctic regions. They must remember it was there we obtained the 
clue, still unravelled, to the laws of those mysterious currents which 
flow through the wastes of the ocean like two mighty rivers — the 
Gulf Stream and the Ice Stream ; must remember that it was there — 
in Boothia — that the two Rosses first reached the Magnetic Pole, that 
mysterious point round which revolves the mariner's compass over one 



530 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

half of the northern hemisphere ; and let the world say whether the 
mass of observations collected by our explorers on all sides of that 
Magnetic Pole have added nothing to the knowledge of the laws of 
magnetic declination and dip. They should remember how, a few 
years ago, it was gravely debated whether man could exist through the 
rigors and darkness of a Polar winter, and how we only have recently 
discovered that Providence has peopled that region to the extreme 
latitude yet reached, and that the animals on which they subsist are 
there likewise, in winter as well as in summer. All this, and much 
more, should be borne in mind by those cynics who would have you 
believe we have toiled in vain ; and I hold, with the late Admiral 
Beechey, ' that every voyage to the north has tended to remove the veil 
of obscurity which previously hung over the geography and all the 
phenomena of the Arctic regions. Before those voyages all was dark- 
ness and terror, all beyond the North Cape a blank ; but, since then, 
each successive voyage has swept away some gloomy superstition, has 
brought to light some new phenomenon, and tended to the advance- 
ment of human knowledge.' " 



METEOROLOGICAL STATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

In the prosecution of just such researches the meteorological sta- 
tions established at the instance of the International Commission of 
1881 have been planted in the Arctic and Antarctic Zones. And here 
it may be well to invoke from all the exercise of a clear and just dis- 
crimination between these objects and that less worthy, and at present 
unfavored object, the problem of the Pole ; or, more strictly speaking, 
between these scientific expeditions, and the voyages having for their 
chief or sole purpose to reach the 90th degree. For no advocacy of 
that purpose has the present volume been attempted. Its chief aim 
has been to make a useful record of what American enterprise has 
secured toward the elimination of errors in the Polar problem; but 
more especially for a record of what of scientific value has been 
secured, and will continue to be secured by further Arctic and 
Antarctic exploration. In this connection, the labors of the meteo- 



STATIONS ROUND THE GLOBE. 531 

rological observers in the ice zones will obtain a special place in 
history. The first era in this history is at present before us in the 
work of 

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS. 

In September, 1875, the late Carl Weyprecht, one of the com- 
manders of the Arctic Expedition, in the ill-fated " Tegethoff," author 
of its Narrative, and discoverer of Franz Josef Land, first proposed 
that the nations of the world should unite in one uniform system of 
simultaneous magnetic and meteorological observations, at as many 
stations as possible, in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The 
results to be secured in those zones would be comparable with, and 
utilized in connection with those derived from observations in the 
temperate zones, and would largely advance the domain of the sciences. 

The details of the plan, elaborated in 1879, 1880, and 1881, resulted 
in the establishment of an Official Polar Commission, all the members 
of which were clothed with authority by their respective governments. 
Under their auspices the following stations were recommended to be 
occupied by observers from the respective countries named. f 



STATIONS RECOMMENDED BY THE POLAR COMMISSION. 

By the United States^ Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land, N. lat., 
81° 44', W. long., 64° 30', and Ooglaamie, near Point Barrow, Alaska, 
N. 71° 18' lat., long. W. 156° 24' ; by Austro-Hungary, Jan Mayen, lafc. 
N. 70° 58', long. 8° 35', and Pola lat. N. 70° 52', E. long. 13° 51'; by 
Denmarh^ Godthaab, lat. 64° 10, W. long. 51° 45' ; by Finland^ Soudan 
Kyla, lat. N. 67° 24', E. long. 26° 36'; by France, Cape Horn, lat. S. 
bQ° 00', W. long. 67° 00' ; by G-ermany, South Georgia Island, 3- lat. 
54° 30', W. long. 38° 00', and Kingawa, N. lat. 67° 30', W. long. 67° 30'. 
(Hogarth Lilet, Cumberland Sound) ; by G-reat Britain and Canada, 
Fort Rae or Fort Simpson, on Great Slave Lake, N. lat. 62° 30', W. 
long. 115° 40', and Toronto, where observations will be made by Can- 
ada, N. lat. 43° 39', W. long. 79° 23' ; by Holland, Dickson Haven, or 
Port Dickson, N. lat. 73° 30', E. long. 82° 00' ; by Italy, Punta Arenas, 



532 AJMEETCAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Patagonia, S. lat. 53° 10', W. long. 70° 55' ; by Bussia, Nova Zembla. 
(Karmakule Bay), N. lat. 72° 30', E. long. 53° 00', and Mouth of the 
Lena, N. lat. 73° 00', E. long. 124° 40' ; by Stveden, Spitzbergen, N. lat.. 
79° 53', E. long. 16° 00' ; by the Argentine Republic, steps have been 
taken to establish a magnetic observatory at Cordoba, S. lat. 31° 30',, 
W., long. 64° 30'. A number of "Auxiliary Stations" were also 
proposed. 

In addition to the two stations named above for Russia, the Geo- 
graphical Society of that country proposed to maintain seven special 
meteorological stations in Siberia. The United States Signal Officer 
reported in 1882 that the following named countries were co-operating 
with the United States in the work of Polar research: Germany at. 
Pendulum Island, North Atlantic, and South Georgian Island, in the 
Antarctic Ocean ; England and Canada, Russia, Austria, France, Hol- 
land, Finland, Norway and Sweden, and Denmark. 

The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Paris (^Premier Tri- 
mestre, 1883), reviews the proposed plan of work, and locates the 
observers as follows : The United States, at the points before named ; 
England, at Fort Rae, Great Slave Lake, 62° 30' N. ; Germany, on 
Cumberland Gulf, QQ"^ 30' N. ; Denmark, at Godhavn, Greenland, 64° 
10' N. ; Austria, at Jan Mayen, between Norway and Greenland, 70°^ 
58'; Sweden, on Mosoel Bay, Spitzbergen, 79° 53' N. ; Norway, at 
Bossekop, the north cape of Finmark, 69° 5Q' N. ; Holland, at Dickson- 
haven, the mouth of the Yenesei, 73° 20' N. ; Russia, at Sokandyla, 
Finland, 67° 24' N., at Karmakuh Bay, north coast of Nova Zembla, 
72° 30^ and at Cape Borchaya, on the east of the Lena Delta, 73° N. 
For these stations the following moneys have been contributed, chiefly 
by national appropriations : For the two parties in the United States, 
$100,000 ; for the English, 833,000 ; for the Danish, $40,000 ; for the 
Austrians, by Count Wibczek exclusively, $40,000; for the Swedish, 
$16,000; for the Holland observations, $13,000; for Norway, $8,000; 
for Russia, $90,000 ; for France, at Cape Horn, $60,000 ; for the Ger- 
man observations at the Georgian Islands, $36,000; for observations 
by Italy and the Argentine Republic at the South Shetland Islands, 
$16,000. 



THIRTEEN COUNTRIES CO-OPERATING. 533 

The review of the proposed international work in the Bulletin of 
the Societe de G-eographie closes with these words : " If we add to all 
these stations those already existing in Russia, Siberia, Alaska, the 
English Provinces of the North, etc., it will be seen that around the 
whole Polar Circle will be a zone of observatories, whose observations 
will form the study of the globe to the eightieth degree of nqrth lati- 
tude ; while in the southern hemisphere England has a meteorological 
observatory in the Falkland Islands. . . . The larger number of the 
civilized nations are striving by scientific means to wrest the myste- 
rious secrets of the deep from their hidden recesses of the North." 

At the date of the issue, by the United States Signal Service, Wash- 
ington, of the "Memoranda" from which some of these notes of the 
stations are cited, it is stated by General Hazen, that since the organi- 
zation of the International Commission, other nations have enlisted in 
the work, the observing parties have all been dispatched to their 
respective destinations, and they now are actually engaged in the con- 
templated observations. The stations will be occupied for at least one, 
and, in some cases, for three years, and may be divided into two classes, 
namely: (1.) The special polar stations within thirty degrees of the 
north or south pole ; and, (2.) The auxiliary stations, which are spread 
over the rest of the habitable globe. Besides these land stations, 
observations made on shipboard are extensively called for, and it is 
hoped that enough observations will be accumulated to allow the mak- 
ing of a complete map of the weather, and of the magnetic disturb- 
ances throughout the whole globe, for any moment of time during the 
period in question. In addition to the main work of these interna- 
tional stations, all possible attention will be given to numerous collat- 
eral subjects. Thirteen nations have thus far entered heartily into the 
project ; fifteen polar stations, and over forty auxiliary stations have 
been established. 

A distinction was made between the observations considered obliga- 
tory and those regarded as desirable. Those considered obligatory in 
the aid of meteorology are, observations on the temperature of the air 
and of the sea, barometric pressure, humidity, winds, clouds, rainfalls, 
and the weather and optical phenomena ; those for magnetism are for 



534 AMEKICAN EXPLORATIONS IK THE ICE ZONES. 

absolute declination, inclination, and horizontal intensity ; and for 
variations of the same. 

In the Official Report of the Chief of the U. S. Signal Service for 
the year 1881, he had said that " Owing to the very mobile nature of 
the atmosphere, the changes taking place on our portion of the globe, 
especially in the Arctic Zone, quickly affect regions very distant there- 
from. The study of the weather in Europe and America cannot be 
successfully prosecuted without a daily map of the whole northern 
hemisphere, and the great blank space of the Arctic region upon our 
simultaneous international chart has long been a subject of regret to 
meteorologists. . . . The general object is to accomplish by observations 
made in concert at numerous stations such additions to our knowledge 
as cannot be acquired by isolated or desultory travelling parties. No 
special attempt will be made at geographical exploration, and neither 
expedition is in any sense an attempt to reach the North Pole. The 
single object is to elucidate the phenomena of the weather and the 
magnetic needle, as they occur in America and Europe, by means of 
observations taken in the region where the most remarkable disturbances 
seem to have their origin." 

In the expression of these sentiments and in the carrying out, as 
General Hazen said, the promises of his predecessor, the late General 
Meyer, by co-operating with the International Committee, he was also 
furthering the objects in view by the late Professor Henry, as expressed 
in his letter to Hon. B. A. Willis, dated Jan. 31, 1877, in which he 
wrote : " I am predisposed to advocate any rational plan for explora- 
tion and observation within the Arctic Circle. Much labor has been 
expended on this subject, especially with a view to reach the Pole ; yet 
many problems connected with physical geography and science in gen- 
eral remain unsolved. 

" I. With regard to a better determination of the figure of the earth, pendulum ex- 
periments are required in the region in question. 

" II. The magnetism of the earth requires, for its better elucidation, a larger num- 
ber and more continued observations than have yet been made, 

" III. To complete our knowledge of the tides of the ocean, a series of observations 
should be made, at least for a year. 

"lY. For completing our knowledge of the winds of the globe, the results of a 



THE PRELIMINAKY EXPEDITION. 535 

larger series of observations than those we now possess are necessary, and also addi- 
tional observations on temperature. 

" V. The whole field of natural history could be enriched by collections in the line 
of botany, mineralogy, geology, etc., and facts of interest obtained with regard to the 
influence of extreme cold on animal and vegetable life. 

" All of the branches of science above mentioned are indirectly con- 
nected with the well-being of man, and tend not only to enlarge his 
sphere of mental pleasures but to promote the application of science to 
the arts of life. As to the special plan of establishing a colony of 
explorers and observers, to be continued for several years, I think 
favorably." 

The plan referred to by Professor Henry was the one embraced in a 
Memorial which had been submitted to Congress by H. W. Howgate, 
then on duty at the U. S. Signal Service Office. The efforts for this 
preliminary Polar Expedition had resulted in the dispatch to Cumber- 
land Sound, by the aid of private subscription only, of 



THE SCHOONER "FLORENCE IN 1877. 

The " Florence " was a fore and aft vessel of fifty-six tons, built in 
Wells, Maine, in 1851, for mackerel fishing ; afterwards used by Wil- 
liams & Haven, Hall's benefactors, as a sealer in the Southern seas. 
Although a staunch and fair sea-boat, she was too small for the purpose, 
and sailed at least two months later than was desirable, leaving New 
London August 3, 1877. Her three professed objects were, to collect 
material, dogs, and sledges ; secure the help of the Eskimos for a second 
steamer which it was proposed should follow ; accomplish some scien- 
tific work, and repay the outlay by whaling. 

The "Florence," under the command of Captain George E. Tysouy 
the leader of the floe party from the " Polaris," first anchored in Ni-an- 
ti-lic harbor, on the western shore of Cumberland Sound, and after 
securing there a number of Eskimos and materials, anchored, October 
7, in An-naw-nac-took, in about lat. 67° N., long. 68° 40' W. A small 
observatory and working-place was erected under shelter for meteoro- 
logical and other observations, and as soon as the snow became compact 



536 AMERICAliT EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZOKES. 

a snow-house built over this tent, which remained as a lining. Scientific 
work was begun at once in the interests of meteorology and the collec- 
tion of specimens in natural history. The co-laborers were Mr. Ludwig 
Kiimlien and Mr. O. T. Sherman, who report that from their peculiar 
surroundings and isolation they " lost much of their wonted enthusiasm 
during the long dreary winter, and found rest only in continued work. 
Their disappointments were increased by the stormy and backward 
s^Dring of 1878, the treacherous condition of the ice, and the de- 
parture of the ' Florence ' from the harbor as early as the 13th of 
July. In her hasty leaving, valuable preparations were of necessity 
abandoned." 

The collection of material for a future Arctic colony had been suc- 
cessful. Sixteen Eskimos, among them " a nephew of Joe, of ' Polaris ' 
fame," twenty-eight dogs, and enough of Arctic clothing, etc., were on 
deck and in the hold. 

But on the return of the " Florence " to Godhavn, July 31, no Ex- 
pedition steamer was to be seen, nor a word of news of such, or of let- 
ters from home ; after three weeks of waiting, therefore, profitably again 
employed in scientific labors, the " Florence " returned to Cumberland 
Sound, and re-landed the Eskimos and their effects. September 12 she 
headed for home, reaching St. Johns, Newfoundland, on the 26th, from 
which port, after encountering a storm of unusual fury, Captain Tyson's 
skill brought her safely into Boston, October 30, 1877. 

The value of this Expedition will thus readily appear to consist in 
the labors of the scientific officers who have been named. The " Bulle- 
tins of the United States National Museum " furnish the catalogues of 
the specimens in natural history, now on deposit in that Institution. 
Bulletin No. 15 (Department of the Interior) is prefaced b}^ a brief In- 
troduction from Mr. Kiimlien, from which, and from " The Cruise of 
the ' Florence ' by Howgate," the preceding notes have been drawn, and 
by a very interesting Ethnological Report. 

Professional Paper No. XL of the Signal Service, is a quarto Report 
by Mr. O. T. Sherman, the meteorologist of the Expedition. Following 
a brief introductory note of the cruise, Mr. Sherman in this volume 
gives us the meteorological and physical observations made at "Ananito," 



PROPOSED PEPMAXEXT STATIONS. 537 

"American," and "Niantilic" harbors on Cumberland Gulf: the first 
trustworthy observations on those shores, which had long needed a 
careful survey and tidal observations for the benefit of the frequent 
visits of whalers there. 

THE UNITED STATES SIGNAL SERVICE STATION AT LADY FRANK- 
LIN BAY. 

Under the painful anxieties which to-day invest one of the United 
States Signal Service Stations, and in connection with the return of the 
party which had located at the other station, Point Barrow^, notes of 
their history are instructive. 

The colony at Fort Conger, in Lady Franklin Bay, lat. 81° 44' N., 
long. 64° 30' W., was established under a Special Act of Congress, 
appropriating the sum of 825,000 for this purpose. By direction of the 
Secretary of War, First Lieutenant A. W. Greely, U. S. A., in June, 
1881, was charged with the duty of establishing a permaiient station at 
the most suitable point north of the eighty-first parallel, and contiguous 
to the coal seam discovered near Lady Franklin Bay by the English 
Expedition of 1875. The coal vein was expected to afford sufficient 
fuel. 

It was the intention of Congress that this station should be main- 
tained for three years at least, for according to the Report of Hon. Mr. 
Whitthorne from the Committee of N'aval Affairs, House of Represent- 
atives, recommending the appropriation, an annual visit should be made 
to the Station to carry fresh food and supplies, and, if necessary, to 
bring back invalid members of the Expedition and carry out fresh 
observers to take their places. 

The party under Lieutenant Greely consists of Lieutenants F. F. 
Kislingbury and James B. Lockwood, and Dr. O. Pavy, Acting-Assist- 
ant Surgeon and Naturalist, with a force of sergeants, corporals, and 
privates of the United States Army, numbering eighteen. The Lieu- 
tenant received his instructions from the Chief Signal Officer, who em- 
bodied in them specific directions for the different branches of the work 
to be accomplished, supplemented by special instructions from " The 
Coast and Geodetic Survey," with a translation of those adopted by the 



538 AMERICAlSr EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

International Polar Conference of 1879, and a copy of those furnished 
by the National Academy of Sciences to the Secretary of the Navy for 
the North Polar Expedition of 1871 under Captain C. F. HalL 

The directions for the outward voyage, and the general work of the 
party after reaching their station, required that after leaving St. Johns, 
Newfoundland, " except to obtain Eskimo hunters, dogs, clothing, etc., 
at Disco or Upernavik, only such stops will be made as the condition 
of the ice necessitates, or as are essential in order to determine the 
exact location and condition of the stores cached on the east coast of 
Grinnell Land by the English Expedition of 1875. During any en- 
forced delays along the coast it would be well to supplement the Eng- 
lish depots by such small caches from the steamer's stores of provisions 
as would be valuable to a party retreating southward by boats from 
Robeson's Channel. At each point where an old depot is examined, or 
a new one established, three brief notices will be left of the visit — one 
to be deposited in the cairn built or found standing, one to be placed 
on the north side of it, and one to be buried twenty feet north (mag- 
netic) of the cairn. Notices discovered in cairns will be brought away, 
replacing them, however, by copies." 

The steamer " Proteus," on her arrival at Lady Franklin Bay, was to 
discharge her cargo with the utmost dispatch, and return to St. Johns, 
bringing a report of the proceedings and observations made during the 
voyage, while the party which landed, after erecting a dwelling-house 
and observatories, were to make, in accordance with the proposals made 
to the Navy Department, sledging expeditions for geographical surveys 
to the high land north of Cape Joseph Henry; their chief work, how- 
ever, was to be that of the scientific observations which have been 
named. 

GEEELY's voyage to lady FRANKLIN BAY. 

[From an Unpublished Letter loaned by the United States Signal Service.] 

Leaving St. Johns, Newfoundland, July 7, Lieutenant Greely reached 

Godhavn on the 16th, the voyage being made in face of continuously 

adverse winds, two strong northerly gales and constant cloudy and foggy 

weather. The ship behaved admirably. The only ice seen south of Cape 



FAVORABLE INDICATIONS. 539 

Farewell was a few icebergs off Funk Island, and about forty in 52° N. 
and 53° 15' W. Pack-ice was fallen in with at 10.30 p. M. July 12, in lat. 
61° 30' N., 53° 30' W., and a second pack encountered the same day, at 
2.30 P. M., in 62° 30' N., 52° 15' W., was passed through in an hour ; 
neither offered any obstructions to free passage or caused the slightest 
delay. They both consisted of ice-floes varying from one to eight feet 
above the water. Coming from the east coast of Greenland, they had 
drifted with the southerly current from Cape Farewell into Davis 
Strait. 

From Herr Krarup Smith, Inspector of North Greenland, it was learned 
that the past winter in Greenland, except a brief period of cold in 
March, had been one of marked and unusual mildness, and that the ice 
north of Upernavik had broken up very early. July 20, Dr. Octave 
Pavy joined the Expedition as Acting Assistant Surgeon. Twelve 
dogs, a large quantity of dog food, and some sealskins were procured, 
with a considerable quantity of " mattak^^ skin of the white whale, a 
very valuable anti-scorbutic ; and a few articles of fur clothing obtained 
by barter, as they cr^-^ld not be bought for money. Hard bread and 
tobacco were principally given in exchange. 

The remains of the house purchased by the " Florence " in 1880 were 
taken on board, as well as thirty thousand pounds of buffalo pemmican 
stored by the same Expedition. A good set of observations for time 
were made July 19-20, at the only hours during which the sun shone. 

Leaving Godhavn the morning of the 21st, the vessel reached Rit- 
tenbenk the same forenoon. At that point were purchased a number 
of sealskins, a large quantity of dog food, and other minor articles, 
which had been accumulated for the Expedition through the energy of 
Dr. Pavy. Being delayed by the fog Lieutenant Lockwood was sent 
.with a party to obtain birds from Awe-Prins Island. He returned^ that 
evening with sixty-five guillemots (Alcaawa or Alca Bruennichi). It 
was said at Rittenbenk that the spring had been the most forward one 
for years. 

From Rittenbenk, running through the Waigat, the steamer was off 
Upernavik 9 p. m. July 23, but oAving to the fog could not enter the harbor 
until next morning. Two Eskimos who were expected to accompany 



540 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

the Expedition were not available, and in consequence a trip to Proven, 
about fifty miles distant, was necessary to obtain others. Skin clothing 
could not be obtained, except ten suits, which having been made by 
order of the Danish Government for the use of the International Polar 
Station of Upernavik of 1882-83, were now sold through the kind- 
ness of Inspector Smith. 

On the morning of July 25 Lieutenant Lockwood left in the steam- 
launch " Lady Greely " for Proven, taking a circuitous route inside the 
islands, rendered necessary by bad weather. He returned early on the 
28th, bringing for service with the Expedition a native, Jans Edward, 
and a half-breed, Frederick Shorley Christiansen ; he also procured about 
a dozen suits of skin clothing, which, though second-hand, were very ser- 
viceable. He had killed one hundred and twenty guillemots during his 
voyage. The launch behaved admirably, both as a sea-boat and under 
steam. 

Lieutenant Kislingbury, under orders, made two visits, July 24 and 
25, to the " Loomery " near Sanderson's Hope, bringing back the first 
day three hundred fine birds, and on the latter one hundred and fifteen, 
all guillemots (Alca Awa), and ten dogs, firve of whom died of dog dis- 
ease, and must have been sick when sold. Additional dog food, sledge 
fittings, dog harness, and sealskins were also bought. It was through 
the marked interest and kindly influence of Inspector Smith that the 
Expedition secured the services of the natives and obtained so fair a 
stock of needed articles. 

The Meteorological Records of the past winter showed it to have been 
very mild, and the spring very early. Inspector Smith remarked that 
in fourteen years Upernavik had never been so green. Reports from 
Tessi-ussak were to the effect that the ice, breaking up very early, was 
all gone. On the afternoon of July 29 the anchorage of Upernavik was 
left, and at 7 P. M., having run out the southern way, the vessel was dis- 
tant three miles, just off the island to the west. Running northward a 
few hours, the Middle Passage was taken, and at 7 A. M. July 31, the 
engines were stopped, as the dead reckoning placed the vessel only six 
miles south of Cape York ; a dense fog prevented the land from being 
seen, but an hour later, the fog lifting a few minutes, showed land about 



LITTLETON ISLAND. 541 

^Ye miles distant. This experience of the " Middle Passage " may be 
fairly said to have been tuithout parallel or precedent. The run of the 
English Expedition of 1875-76 from Upernavik to seventy-five miles 
south of Cape York in seventy hours was said to have been unprece- 
dented ; this passage by the same route, and to within five miles of 
Cape York, was made in thirty-six hours, half the time taken by the 
Expedition under Sir George Nares to run a less distance. 

Nothing in the shape of a pack was encountered in Baffin's Bay ; but 
in about 75° 08' N., 63° 40' W., a pack was seen to the westward; 
whether open or compact was uncertain. At 8.15 A. M. July 31, the fog 
lifting, disclosed Petowik glacier near, to the north of which, in small 
patches of dirty reddish color, was seen the red snow among the '' crim- 
son cliffs " of Sir John Ross. Sighting the Carey islands at 3.10 p. m., 
two parties were landed on the southeast at 5.45 p.m. The party under 
Dr. Pavy obtained from the cairn on the summit the record left by 
Captain Allen Young in 1875 and 1876, and with Lieutenants Greely 
and Lockwood found and examined the whaleboat and depot of pro- 
visions left by Sir George Nares in 1875 ; they were in good and ser- 
viceable condition. 

August 2 Littleton Island was reached. Here a personal and ex- 
haustive search of seven hours was necessary to find the English mails, 
which, in four boxes and three kegs, have been forwarded in order that 
they may be returned to England. There was a very small cairn near 
the mails, but with no record. A record enclosure was left here, and 
Lieutenant Lockwood with a party landed about six and a half tons of 
coal, as a depot of fuel for possible future use. It is in and around a 
large cask, on low ground, on the southeast side of the island, facing 
Cape Alexander. Lieutenant Kislingbury and Dr. Pavy visited Life- 
boat Cave to communicate with the Etah Eskimos and see the " Polaris " 
winter quarters. Several photographs of the surroundings were tkken 
by Sergeant Rice, and a number of relics were brought off, which will 
be forwarded. The Transit instrument of the " Polaris " (not seen by 
the English Expedition of 1875) was found about twenty feet from the 
cairn. The Etah Eskimos have evidently quitted the place, as all traces 
were old, a year certainly, and probably two or three vears. 



542 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

In searching on Littleton Island for the Nares cairn about fifty small 
cairns (many evidently for game) were found, in two of which were 
records from the steamship " Erik," Captain Walker, June 20, 1876. A 
cairn carefully built, and with an aperture at the base, probably that of 
Sir George Nares, was found open and empty. A record was made by 
Lieutenant Lockwood for deposit, but a message sent him when the 
English mail was found caused him to withdraw it, or he was erroneously 
informed that the cairn sought for had been discovered. It probably 
has been plundered, as a piece of a London newspaper, " The Standard," 
was found in the snow on the west side of the island. It contains a 
notice of a lecture by Sir George Nares in 1875. 

Some repairs to the wheel of the ship caused several hours' delay; 
but Littleton Island was left at 10.45 p. M. The weather being very 
fair, and no ice visible, the captain was directed to run direct for Cape 
Hawks. August 3, Cape Sabine was passed at 1.50 a.m. and Cape 
Camperdown at 4.10 A. M. At 8.30 A. M. the " Proteus " was off Cape 
Hawks, and at 9.10 a.m. lay to about two miles north of it, between 
the main land and Washington Irving Island. Lieutenants Greely and 
Kislingbury proceeded to the main shore, and examined the English 
depot of 1875. The jollyboat was found in good condition, and, being 
short of boats, was taken. Several photographs of the surroundings 
were taken by Sergeant Rice. Washington Land was first sighted at 
3.55 P.M. through openings in the fog which commenced setting in. 
About 5 p. M. the 80th parallel was crossed, and at 5.30 the ship was 
abreast off Cape CoUinson, where two hundred and forty rations are 
cached, but which were not visited, through fear that denser fogs 
would set in and seriously delay the northward passage. At 10 P. M., 
after running slowly through a dense fog, it was necessary to stop until 
the next day (August 4), when the fog cleared at 11.15 a.m. Franklin 
Sound was sighted about eight miles northeast (true) ; it was passed at 
11.45 A.M. At 2 P.M. the ship stopped in the northeast end of Carl 
Ritter Bay, where about two hundred and twenty-five bread and meat 
rations were landed by a party, for use in case of a retreat south in 1883. 
The depot was made on the first bench from the sea, just north of a 
little creek in the extreme northeast part of the bay. 



THE "PBOTEUS" IN THE PACK. 548 

About 7.45 p. M., off Cape Lieber, a heavy pack against the land 
was passed by a detour to the eastward, and at 9 p. M, August 4, the 
vessel was stopped for the first time hy ice, in the extreme southeast 
part of Lady Franklin Bay, only eight miles from destination. The 
pack was a very heavy one, and running from Cape Baird northward 
in a semicircle, reached the Greenland coast, where it touched the land 
just south of Offley Island, near the mouth of Peterman's Fiord. It 
consisted of thick Polar ice, ranging from twenty to fifty feet in thick- 
ness, cemented together by harbor ice from two to five feet thick. It 
was impossible to do aught but wait. The vessel was tied to the pack 
off Cape Baird, and awaited a gale. 

August 5, Greely went ashore at Cape Lieber, with Lieutenant 
Lockwood, Doctor Pavy and a party, to examine the ice from the cliffs. 
Lieutenant Lockwood erected a cairn on the highest peak. No other 
cairn could be seen on it or from it, nor on other peaks visited by 
Greely and Doctor Pavy. Occasional lanes of water could be seen 
through the rifts of the fog-cloud which covered Hall-basin ; but the 
main pack was firm and unchanged. August 6, the pack moving 
slightly, obliged the vessel to change her mooring-place from time to 
time ; it drove the ship out of Lady Franklin Bay, and during two 
days she was gradually driven south ; probably twenty-five miles of ice 
in huge fields passed southward. Every opportunity was improved to 
steam around such fields, to keep head against the southerly current ; 
but by the evening of August 8 the steady north wind had forced the 
whole pack down, while the fields previously driven southward, packed 
fast together, formed a huge, compact barrier, stretching from Carl 
Hitter Bay across to Hans Island. Only a mile or so of open water 
remained. A nip appeared most probable, and preparations were 
hastily made to unship screw and rudder. During the night nfatters 
improved somewhat ; but again, during the 9th and 10th, the ship was 
forced slowly southwards to within about five miles of Hans Islands, 
having lost about forty-five miles of latitude. 



544 ^iVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

RELEASE OF THE "PROTEUS." 

About noon of the 10th the long-desired southwest gale set in, 
accompanied by snow, starting the pack northward. The snow cleared 
the next morning, but the gale fortunately continued, and open water 
was visible on the west coast as far northward as could be seen. 
At 7.30 A. M. the ship rapidly ran northward, and about 1 p. m. again 
passed Cape Lieber, and at 2.40 p. m. had crossed Lady Franklin Bay. 
Either ice-foot or pack-ice jammed against the shore, covered Water- 
course Bay, but a narrow lane permitted the vessel to enter Discovery 
Harbor just inside Dutch Island, where harbor ice about eighteen 
inches thick was found, covering the whole harbor as well as the western 
half of Lady Franklin Bay. The vessel forced her way about one 
fourth of a mile through ice of the character named above, and there 
stopped, pending a decision as to the locality of the station. Lieuten- 
ant Lockwood, sent to examine the bay, reported the place an excellent 
one for camp, the bay partly clear, but shallow. He thought it prob- 
able the vessel could come within about two hundred yards of the 
shore ; the bay, however, was of such shape that while discharging, the 
vessel would be unprotected against ice, as it is exposed to all winds 
from northeast to south-southwest. The coal was so located that it 
could be readily mined after ice formed, and could, if required, be 
hauled without difficulty to Watercourse Bay or to Discovery Harbor. 
Lieutenant Greely reluctantly decided to settle at Discovery winter 
quarters; and it was a fortunate decision, for Watercourse Bay was 
full of pack-ice. 

On the 12th the vessel broke her way through two miles of heavy 
ice, and anchored off the cairn about one hundred yards from shore ; 
the men were divided into two gangs, to work day and night by four- 
hour reliefs, until the general cargo was discharged, which was done in 
sixty hours. Coal was landed, of which there was about one hundred 
and forty tons, enough to last two winters without mining any. Work 
on the house progressed rapidly, though but three or four men could 
be spared for the work. The foundation was finished, floor stringers 
laid, and about one eighth of the frame set up. Fourteen musk oxen 



GEEELY'S SUPPLIES AND CACHES. 545 

were immediately killed, and enough meat procured for issue, three 
times a week, for the following; seven months, besides ten days' rations 
of dried birds. " The post has been named Fort Conger, in honor of 
Senator Conger of Michigan. Photographic views have been, and will 
be, taken once each day. From these one can best judge of the 
progress and condition of affairs." 

It is proper to state, saj^s Lieutenant Greely, that a retreat from 
here southward to Cape Sabine, in case no vessel reaches here in 
1882-83, luill he safe and practicable ; although all but the most impor- 
tant records will necessarily have to be abandoned ; abstracts could 
and will be made of those left. 

In the Reports of the Signal Officer for 1881-82, it is stated that, 
" The station has supplies for two years ; that it was contemplated to 
be visited in 1882 and 1883 by a seal steamer or other vessel, bearing 
such supplies and additions to the party as might be deemed needful ; 
and that in case such vessel is unable to reach Lady Franklin Bay in 
1882, she will cache a portion of her supplies and all of her letters and 
dispatches at the most northerly point she attains on the east coast of 
G-rinnell Land^ and establish a small depot of supplies at Littleton 
Island. Notices of the locality of such depots will be left at one or 
all of the following places, viz. : Cape Hawks, Cape Sabine, and Cape 
Isabella. In case no vessel reaches the permanent station in 1882, the 
vessel sent in 1883 will remain in Smith's Sound until there is danger 
of its closing by ice, and, on leaving will land all her supplies and a 
party at Littleton Island^ which party will be prepared for a winter's 
stay, and will be instructed to send sledge parties up the east side of 
G-rinnell Land to meet this party. If not visited in 1882, Lieutenant 
Greely will abandon his station not later than September 1, 1883, and 
will retreat southward by boat, following closely the east coast of 
G-rinnell Land^ until the relieving vessel is met or Littleton Island is 
reached." 

THE ATTEMPTED RELIEFS OF 1882 AND 1883. 

" During the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress an Act was 
passed June 27, 1882, appropriating 133,000 for the supply and relief 



546 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

of Lieutenant Greely's party ; and under this appropriation Mr. Wil- 
liam M. Beebe was sent out with men and supplies on board the 
'Neptune,' on the 8th of July following. His Report to the Signal 
Officer, dated St. Johns, N. F., September 28, tells the brief story of 
the failure of this vessel to reach the station. 

" The ' Neptune ' met the first field ice July 13, lat. 60° N., long. 
54° W. Mr. Beebe says that these fields, though not large, were very 
heavy and solid, and this was undoubtedly the heavy winter ice, borne 
from the eastern coast of Greenland by the strong current which sets 
southward from about Iceland, turns to the westward and northward 
around Cape Farewell, and flows up the western coast of Greenland, 
until, in lat. (about) 67° N., it meets and mingles with the current 
from Baffin's Bay. These united currents set southward with great 
strength down the coast of Labrador, and trending eastward, pass 
around and down the eastern coast of Newfoundland and into the Gulf 
Stream, carrying with them the immense icebergs launched from the 
numerous glaciers of West Greenland and so much of the ice-fields as 
had survived the passage from Davis Strait." The passage of the ship 
did not exceed three miles an hour, but she broke through the frag- 
ments of solid ice-pans, clearing the floe within two days, and arriving 
at Godhavn on the 17th. Here she learned the death of the Danish 
Inspector Smith, so frequently referred to in all previous American 
expeditions. Leaving Godhavn July 20, the "Neptune" encountered 
a blinding snowstorm, rendering it impossible to pick her way through 
the channels. She tied up to the ice-fields for the night. Working 
again with difficulty from the 23d to the 28th, after helplessly drifting 
with the tides in plain view of Cape York and the Crimson Cliffs of 
Beverly, she passed Littleton Island; but, a half hour later, Avas 
checked by an unbroken ice-barrier, from twelve to twenty feet thick^ 
extending from Cape Inglefield on the West, across the sound, to Ross 
Bay and to the northern horizon. Turning again southward, and 
looking in only at Life-boat Cove and Port Foulke, she made a toler- 
ably comfortable anchorage in Pandora Harbor, finding here Sir Allen 
Young's record of his visit in the "Pandora," 1875; and, for a most 
acceptable change from the ordinary ship's fare, abundance of game — 



THE "NEPTUNE" RETURNS. 547 

Arctic hares, eider ducks, auks, and a variety of gulls. August 7, the 
field ice having been thoroughly broken by the southwest gales, the 
" Neptune " again turned northward, reaching on the 10th lat. 79° 20', 
twelve miles from Cape Hawks and seventeen from Cape Prescott. 
On the 18th she anchored in Payer Harbor, lat. 78° 42' N., long. 74° 
21', finding on Brevoort Island, and on an islet near it. Captain Nares' 
record and the depot established by Captain Stephenson. The broken 
cache was rebuilt, and a record of the " Neptune " placed in it. 

Making a third northward effort on the 23d, but checked in it. 
Captain Sopp found the condition of the ice and the prevalence of the 
southwest winds to demand that the ship should seek a harbor ; he 
returned to Pandora Bay, and from thence, after several unsuccessful 
attempts even to establish a depot as far north as Cape Hawks, an- 
chored off Littleton Island on the 28th.. Mr. Beebe here effected a 
landing, and established one cache on Cape Sabine and a second on 
Littleton Island, securing these so as to be invisible from any point 
a few yards distant, that they might be safe from the Etah Eskimos, 
a party of whom had already twice visited the ^'Neptune." Minute 
directions for finding these stores, as well as a whaleboat placed on 
Cape Isabella, were left on another part of the Island, as had been 
requested by Lieutenant Greely's letter of the previous year. Mr. 
Beebe was satisfied that if Lieutenant Greely should come down to 
Cape Sabine he would readily find these. After effecting this provi- 
sion for the future of that party, he was, however, reluctantly com- 
pelled to assent to the decision of the captain of the ''Neptune," its first 
officer, Mr. Norman, ana the surgeon, to return to the United States. 
Further delay was useless and extremely hazardous, and the safety of 
the ship and the lives of all on board demanded an immediate depar- 
ture. On the 8th of September Godhavn was again reached, and the 
dogs, dog-food and lumber put on shore for a subsequent expedition : 
on the 24th the " Neptune " anchored again at St. Johns. The voyage 
was another and a striking illustration of the uncertainty of ice-navi- 
gation, especially as contrasted with that of the " Proteus " when she 
took out the party under Lieutenant Greely the previous year. It was 
disheartening to the friends of Arctic Exploration, as well as to the 



548 AIMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

relatives of the explorers, that no supplies could be afforded to those 
at such distance from home, and no reports of their labors or of their 
condition could be received. Nothing whatever could be done until 
the summer of 1883. 

THE RELIEF SHIP "PEOTEUS," 1883. , 

In obedience to orders from the War Department and from the 
chief signal officer U. S. A., Lieutenant E. A. Garlington left New 
York on board the U. S. steamer "Yantic," Commander Wildes, June 
12, and, on arriving at St. Johns on the 21st, finding there the steam- 
ship " Proteus," which had been chartered for an expedition to relieve 
Lieutenant Greely's party, nearly ready for sea. After a consultation 
with Commander Wildes, the steamships "Yantic" and "Proteus" 
left St. Johns June 29, Lieutenant Garlington having been joined on 
board the " Proteus " by Lieutenant J. C. Colwell, U. S. N., on duty, 
under orders from the Navy Department, as a volunteer. 

Disco Island was sighted July 6, but Captain Pike, " by some error 
in his bearings," ran by the entrance to the harbor, and was making 
about due course for Rittenbenk, when some one on deck discovered a 
pilot-boat steaming after them. The ship was put about and the 
captain piloted into Godhaven. 

The " Yantic " arrived on the 12th, having come all the way under 
sail and encountering no ice. Commander Wildes informing the lieu- 
tenant that he would remain at Godhavn probably a week, and then 
go to the Waigat Strait to procure coal, Garlington left the harbor on 
the 16th, determined to push his way forward without further delay. 
The Inspector and the Governor of Godhavn both assured him that 
there would probably be no difficulty in reaching the station. On the 
17th, when passing Hare Island, icebergs were numerous in every 
direction. On the 18th the " Proteus " was forcing her way through 
ice varying from two to six feet in thickness, and on the second day 
following she was stopped by an impenetrable pack. Lieutenant Col- 
well determined the longitude, by an artificial horizon placed on the 
floe, to be 61° 30', " proving the captain of the ship to be entirely in 
error as to his position : Captain Pike had no idea of what was the 



A MISTAKEN LEAD. 549 

local deviation of the compass." The " Proteus " agaiii turned south, 
Oape York in sight ; on the 22d the southeast Carey Island, the cache 
of Nares' Expedition, was visited, and a record taken up which was 
made there Aug. 1, 1881. 
The record is as follows : 

" International Polar Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, fitted out by the War 
Department, under the supervision of General W. B. Hazen, Chief Signal Officer 
U. S. Army, and commanded by First Lieutenant A. W. Greely Fifth Cavalry, 
A. S. O. and Asst. 

"Left in the Steamship 'Proteus,' island of Upernavik, 7 p.m., July 29, 1881, 
and at 7 A. M., July 31, stopped by a heavy fog about six miles south of land supposed 
to be Cape York. Middle passage taken and found to be entirely unobstructed by ice. 
All well. This notice deposited August 1, 1881. 

(Signed) "J. B. LOCKWOOD, 

" Lieut. 23d Inf U. S. Army, Third Officer." 

(Memoranda.) 

"' One keg of biscuits opened and found mouldy. One can of beef opened and 
found good. Stores generally found apparently in same condition as when deposited 
liere in 1875. 

(Signed) "J. B. LOCKWOOD, Lieut. U. S. Army." 

At Cape Sabine, Payer Harbor, the cache of stores made by the 
party from the "Neptune" the year previous, was found to be in fair 
condition. 



THE 

Under the ever quickly changing, but now favorable condition of 
the leads in the ice, Lieutenant Garlington determined to go out in the 
harbor, to examine these and endeavor once more to go North. By his 
glass he saw that " the pack had broken and open lanes of water Jiad 
formed, leading across Buchanan Strait along Bache Island and across 
Princess Marie Bay. At 8 P. M. the ' Proteus ' rounded Cape Sabine 
and proceeded through the open leads in the broken ice to within four 
miles of Cape Albert, where the ship was stopped about six hundred 
yards from the open water, and Captain Pike's efforts to force a passage 
by ramming entirely failed." 



550 AMEIUCAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

The fatal issue now came. The " Proteus " on arriving next day 
again within four miles of Cape Albert, discovered that the open lane 
was now filled with a solid pack ; she turned southward in a fruitless 
attempt to make her way out ; at 2.45, movement in any direction was 
impossible. Ice from five to seven feet in thickness came against her 
sides and then piled itself up on the floe amidships and astern ; at 4.30 
p. M., the starboard rail gave way, the ice forced its way through the 
ship's side into the bunker, the deck planks rose, the seams opened out ; 
at 7.15 she slowly passed out of sight on an even keel. Alive from the 
outset to the coming crush of the nip, Lieutenants Garlington and Col- 
well and Dr. Harrison had succeeded in saving one of the boats and a 
quantity of the stores ; the Report to the Signal Officer affirms that 
with the exception of the Chief Engineer of the " Proteus " and the 
Boatswain, none of the crew of the "Proteus" lent assistance to this 
work, but employed themselves in opening and rifling the boxes even 
of private clothing. With some of the stores saved. Lieutenant Col- 
well made a cache three miles west of Cape Sabine, which was after- 
wards increased by the two sidereal chronometers and a quantity of 
clothing. The cache was intended for Lieutenant Greely's party. 



THE BOAT JOUENEY SOUTH. 

To render assistance to Greely being now impossible, there remained 
nothing for the parties from the " Proteus " except the choice either of 
spending the winter with the Eskimos or attempting t.o cross Melville 
Bay in boats. Lieutenant Colwell headed boldly across the bay to 
establish communication with the "Yantic"; the rest of the party 
started to coast around the bay and reach Upernavik ; after a severe 
Arctic experience, Colwell reached Upernavik on the 23d, and finding 
that the "Yantic" was not there, pushed forward to Godhavn where he 
found the tender, and gladly learned from Commander Wildes that on 
the 2d of the month at Upernavik, he had received on board all of the 
other parties from the "Proteus." Lieutenant Col well's boats had 
spent in them thirty-eight days, making a voyage of nearly one thou- 
sand miles. 



THE COURT OF INQUIRY. 551 

September 13, Commander AViides telegraphed to the Secretary of 
the Navy from St. Johns, the arrival of the '' Yantic," bringing Captain 
Pike and crew of the " Proteus " and Lieutenant Garlington and the 
Greely Relief Party. Garlington telegraphed to the Chief Signal Officer 
the total failure of the Expedition and the crushing of the '' Proteus." 
. The history of this Relief Expedition being at the date of this writ- 
ing, a subject of investigation before a Court of Inquiry ordered by the 
President of the United States, it would seem out of place and prema- 
ture to extend these details. It is, however, eminently proper to refer 
all who would form a judgment of the voyage of either the '' Proteus " 
or the ^' Yantic,*' to the different experiences of the Arctic ships which 
have attempted this northern passage. They are properly commented 
upon by Commander Wildes in his letter of Oct. 16, 1883, to Hon. 
W. E. Chandler, Secretary of the Navy. Those at all familiar with 
Arctic literature will be slow to condemn either Lieutenant Garlington 
or Commander Wildes; the first for his conscientious attempt to go 
forward for the relief of Greely, at a time when the open leads seemed 
to make such a decision imperative ; or the second for not pressing 
forward his ship well known to be ill-fitted for severe Arctic exper- 
iences. Commander Wildes has justly said : " I did not intend to run 
the vessel under my command in the haphazard, happy-go-lucky fashion 
which finally brought the ' Proteus ' to grief ; but to make sure, so far 
as possible, of every step which I took. I was governed by what I 
have previously stated in regard to the possibilities of Melville Bay 
and the probabilities of our being beset in the pack. Once involved in 
ice, I knew we would be helpless, and our imprisonment of indefinite 
duration.*" 

* The Reports of Mr. Beebe (Signal Service Notes, Xo. V.) and of Lieutenant Gar- 
lington, Xo. X., together with the Letters from the Hon. Secretaries of the War and Xavy, 
and the Proceedings of the Army Court of Inquiry, in session at this date, will present 
all the facts in the history of an Expedition located in the best interests of Science, and 
deprived of relief only by the unfavorable condition of the ice in the northern straits for 
the two summers, which followed the very opposite conditions which favored the party 
going out under Greely himself. This fickleness presents nothing new to the readers of 
Arctic voyages. They will hope that the summer of 1884 will offer free passage to a well- 
equipped party who will find the long-absent observers under Greely safe, through their 
endurance of three Arctic winters. 



552 AMERICAK EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

THE STATION NEAR POINT BARROW, ALASKA. 

For the establishment of a station in a foreign land an Act of Con- 
gress was necessary, but the location of an observing party in Alaska 
was made under the general power of the Signal Officer to establish 
stations in the United States. 

By direction of the Secretary of War, the Chief Signal Officer intrusted 
this Expedition to the charge of First Lieutenant P. H. Ray, 8th In- 
fantry, at the date of June 24, 1881, Acting Signal Officer. Lieutenant 
Ray's party consisted of Acting-Assistant Surgeon G. S. Oldmixon, with 
three Sergeants and eight subordinates. His orders were to sail as 
soon as practicable from San Francisco and establish a permanent Sta- 
tion near Point Barrow. Special instructions in regard to the meteoro- 
logical, magnetic, tidal, pendulum and other observations and for the 
collection of specimens for the National Museum were placed in the 
Lieutenant's hands. He was informed that it was designed to visit 
the permanent Station by steam or sailing vessel in 1882, '83, and '84, 

Ray's party sailed from San Francisco in the steamer " Golden 
Fleece," July 18, 1881. 

On the 15th of September he wrote to General Hazen from Ooglaa- 
mie, Alaska : — 

"SiK, — I have the honor to report that the Expedition arrived at this place on 
the 8th inst., and after a careful survey found the most suitable place for the Station 
to be on the northeast side of a small inlet, which I have named Golden Fleece, 
about eight miles from the extreme northern point of Point Barrow, there being no 
high land between here and there and all the intermediate country being interspersed 
with small lakes and lagoons ; the only high ground at Point Barrow is occupied by 
an Indian village. The point adjacent to Point Barrow, where Macguire, R. N. had 
his observatory, is, I am told, submerged during western gales. On the opposite side 
of the inlet, about one and a half miles away is the Indian village of Ooglaamie, 
from which I have named the Observatory. The voyage has been a long one and 
particularly a trying one upon the party, as/ a heavy gale was encountered off Cape 
Lisburne, driving us out of our course to the north and west. And there will still be 
more or less suffering before I can get quarters up, as the ground is now covered 
with snow ; ice is forming rapidly on the inlet and lakes, and the cargo was landed 
with extreme difficulty, as it had to be done on an open beach ; and for two days 
through a heavy surf which often half filled our boats in landing, the spray freezing 
where it struck, and the vessel liable to be driven out to sea at any hour. On the 



THE LEO. 553 

12th a small wharf was built, and that night fortunately, the wind and sea abated 
and the balance of the cargo was landed on the 13th and I4th, the natives rendering 
valuable assistance with their oomiaks. Everything is now on the beach above 
high tide-mark, nothing damaged or broken of any importance so far as I can find 
out. It is utterly impossible for me to state now what may have been omitted with 
the time I have got, as I cannot detain the vessel for fear she may be frozen in be- 
fore passing Bering Straits ; I will only be able to check and correct as I put my 
stores in the building. I have no changes to recommend as to the meuTbers of the 
party. 

" From Avhat Professor Baird said to some members of the party, I find that he 
expected me to procure specimens of native arms, boats, implements, etc. As these 
are of value to the natives they will have to be purchased in trade, and as I have not 
a sufiicient supply for that purpose, having only taken enough to purchase fresh 
meat and to hire boats and labor in landing, I respectfully ask that I may be in- 
structed in the matter. 

" In my report from Plover Bay, I mentioned the necessity of the vessel next 
year sailing from San Francisco at an earlier date than the Expedition this year; the 
severe experience of the last fifteen days confirms my impressions of that date. 
Have not seen the sun since I have been here. I give the latitude and longitude by 
dead reckoning from my own log-book — lat. 71"^ 17' 50" 1^., long. 156^ 23' 45" W." 

EELIEF EXPEDITION TO POINT BAPPOW. 

June 24, 1882, Lieutenant J. S. Powell, U. S. A., sailed from San 
Francisco in the schooner " Leo," one hundred and fifty tons burden, 
with supplies for the Signal Service Station Ooglaamie. At St. 
Michael, July 26, Powell shipped as cabin-boy a native named Kan-u- 
ark, to act as interpreter and messenger. This was effected only after 
much persuasion. The news of the loss of the " Jeanne tte " having 
already reached the people, they seemed loath to venture abroad in the 
white man's ships. " The simple native of these shores," says Powell, 
" when he sees the mighty oomiaks of the white man go away in the 
gloom of the mysterious North, refuses to venture within the reach of 
the baleful power of the icy North." j 

On reaching Bering Sea, a heavy gale from the North was exper- 
ienced with weather too thick to make headway toward the straits. 
The " Leo " for several days lay without sight of land or sun about four 
miles from the entrance of Plover Bay ; the fog clearing, she was towed 
up the bay by the U. S. Revenue Cutter " Corwin," Captain J. T. 
Healy, and again brought out to sea by the same ship. 



554 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

Passing through a renewal of dense fogs and of a heavy gale, the 
ship lay at anchor three days at Port Clarence, and thence passed 
through the strait and crossed the Arctic Circle. On the 14th, Cape 
Lisbnrne was sighted under the experience of another heavy gale ; but 
at 12 M. on the 18th, Powell was in a calm, long. 158° 50' W., lat. 71° 
21' N., and at 8 of the same day, a southeast breeze sprang up which 
Powell thought would quickly bear the ship to Point Barrow. The 
next morning he was surprised to find himself considerably to the 
northeast of it, by the action of a strong northeast current. On land- 
ing at the Station August 20, Lieutenant Pay confirmed the observa- 
tions of this current, adding that had it become calm, the '^Leo" might 
have drifted to the northeast and been crushed by ice ; the vessels 
caught in this current move off to the northeast and not a piece of 
timber ever returns. 

Powell says in his Report (Signal Service Notes, No. X.) : — 

" The prospect from the station, even in summer, when it is at its best, is monot- 
onous and uninviting, and in winter it must be dreary indeed. The tundra spreads 
away level and brown, relieved here and there by patches of sickly green, guttered 
in all directions by shallow water-courses, and covered with small shallow pools, 
while at no point within view does it reach an elevation of fifty feet above the level 
of the sea. Vegetation is ver}^ scanty, consisting chiefly of moss and lichens and 
other cryptogamous growths, with occasional patches of hard, wiry grass, and a few 
simple flowers. The only shrub to be found is the dwarf willow% which, instead of 
growing in an erect position, creeps along under the moss as if trying to hide from 
the inclement blasts, and in summer, it shoots forth its pretty rose-colored catskins 
and green leaves through its mossy covering in a timid and hesitating manner, as if 
aware of the uncongenial character of its surroundings. 

" During eight months of the year the earth is frozen, and during the remaining 
four it thaws to the depth of a foot from the surface, but below that depth it is per- 
manently frozen to an unknown depth, probably one hundred and fifty to two hun- 
dred feet. It is a desolate land, interesting no doubt, but destitute of beauty, one in 
which the struggle for existence, both by animal and vegetable life, is of the hardest, 
where the aspects of nature are harsh without grandeur and desolate w^ithout being 
picturesque, and where the dead level of monotony everywhere prevails, the greatest 
variety being in the length of days and nights, which vary about seventy-two days 
to about as many minutes. 

" The year is divided into seasons, — a winter eight months long and a rather 
imcertain summer of four months. The latter season, if summer it can be called, is 
only such by contrast with the preceding winter, for the temperature rarely reaches 
60'^, and at any time a snow-storm may occur. Snow fell on every day we were at 



ADVANCE IMPOSSIBLE. 555 

station. The lowest temperature experienced at the station was 60° below zero. 
During Lieutenant Powell's stay there was but one day only on which the sun shone 
sufficiently to make observations." 

Of the ice he says : — 

" The sea at Point Barrow does not freeze to a greater depth than six or seven 
feet ; the ice with which it is filled comes from a distance, and is generally a mixture 
of new and old worn ice. There is nothing in this sea approaching an iceberg, but 
still some very respectable masses are formed, especially near the coast, where the 
pressure of the moving floes from without is met by the resistance of the land, and 
huge fields of ice are driven over each other until they become grounded in water 
from fifteen to twenty fathoms deep and are piled up some forty or fifty feet. No 
doubt the grandeur and sublimity given to Arctic scenery by the immensity of ice- 
bergs are here wanting, but the immensity of power displayed by the chaotic jumble 
of these enormous ice masses is more calculated to impress the mind than the mere 
bulk of lofty bergs that stud the seas on the eastern side of the continent. The 
broken floes are thrown together in every conceivable position, and at every possi- 
ble inclination of surface, in a profusion of irregularity, of which no language can 
convey an adequate idea, and which must needs be seen to be appreciated. 

" Travelling over such a surface as this is next to impossible, and men without 
encumbrances could possibly advance eight or ten miles in a day, but if laden with 
food or otherwise, their progress would be far less than this — heavy ice-sleds would 
be almost impossible. Wherever there is land there is always an ice-foot — a nar- 
row strip of level ice along the coast, over which sled-travel can be easily carried 
on, or in narrow channels without currents, when the ice may be comparatively 
smooth, but in the open sea, at a distance from land, such travel need never be at- 
tempted by any means now at our command, for nothing but failure will attend such 
attempts. The fringe of grounded ice along the Point Barrow coast follows an irreg- 
ular line, more or less distant from tiie shore, depending on the depth of the water, 
and varies from three to five miles in width. 

"Beyond the grounded line, the surface of the hummocks and floes is just as 
rough and uneven as it is everywhere else, but there is always more or less change 
going on — sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly. Although to the eye the broad 
expanse of jumbled ice-hummocks seems as stable as the solid land, the stability is 
only apparent; a kind of vibratory motion takes j^lace from time to time; the press- 
ure increases and decreases alternately; currents set in, and the whole body of the 
ice seems to oscillate to and fro, so that it is seldom that the peculiar noises occa- 
sioned by the grinding and crushing together of the slowly moving masses cannot be 
Jieard. This song of the icj' sea is a very peculiar one, and can scarcely be described 
so as to convey any clear idea of its nature. It is not loud, yet it can be heard to a 
great distance; it is neither a surge nor a swash, but a kind of slow, crashing, groan- 
ing, slu-ieking sound, in which sharp, silvery tinklings mingle with the low thunder- 
ous undertone of a rushing tempest. It impresses one with the idea of nearness and 



556 AMERICAN EXPLOKATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

distance at the same time, and also that of immense forces in conflict. When this 
confused fantasia is heard from afar, through the stillness of this Aretic zone, the 
effect is strangely weird and solemn — as if it were the distant hum of an active^ 
living world breaking across the boundaries of silence, solitude and death." 

AURORAS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE MAGNET. 

" A description of auroral display, furnished me by members of the party, would 
lead me to suppose that no known portion of the globe surpasses Point Barrow, and 
few equal it in the intensity and brilliancy of these displays. The brilliancy of th& 
displays bears no proportion to their number. It was only occasionally that great 
splendor and magnificence were reached, and the duration of the greatest brilliancy 
was only brief, compared with that of the display of which it formed a part. Indi- 
vidual auroras often lasted ten or twelve hours or more, but the great bursts of 
splendor and motion seldom lasted more than thirty minutes, and often did not con- 
tinue even so long; but while they lasted they were magnificent, indeed. On such 
occasions the sky became a gorgeous canopy of flames, all splendor, color and motion ; 
arch, column, and banner flashed and faded ; silvery rays, with rosy bases and fringed, 
with gold or emerald green, danced and whirled around the zenith, and broad cur- 
tains of light flung across the sky in every form of graceful curve and convolution, 
shook rainbow tints from every fold, until the beholder became bewildered and lost 
in the dazzling brilliancy. 

" In lower latitudes, the aurora is mostly seen as a luminous arch extending 
across the northern sky. At Point Barrow, the arched form, though common, was not 
the prevalent one, and the arches that appeared were seldom perfect, or if so, only^ 
for a few moments at a time, and the changes of form were so incessant that it was 
hard to decide which was the prevailing type. The curtain form, mostly broken, but 
always convoluted and folded on itself like an immense scroll, was a common form, 
but whatever the form, the phenomena passed over the sky in a succession of waves, 
sometimes from north to south and vice versa. Intimately connected with the aurora 
was the disturbance of the magnetic needle — in fact, during the prevalence of the 
aurora, the magnets were in a state of chronic perturbation, especially during the- 
great displays, when they were often so disturbed that some of them could not be 
read." 

" Having turned over all supplies to Lieutenant Ray, Sunday, August 27, and re- 
lieved from duty under my charge Sergeant Joseph E. Maxfield and Privates Charles 
Ancor and John A. Guzman, and receiving all mail destined for the United States, 
preparations were made to leave this dreary region — a region which seems to me ta 
be one in which the bright sunshine of hope enters with a light so subdued that it 
is but the gleam from a far distant planet penetrating the cavern of ceaseless solitude 
and woe. 

" By i-eason of the severity of the climate, Sergeant James Cassidy was re- 
lieved by Lieutenant Ray from duty at Ooglaamie, and returned with me to San 
Francisco, 



NEWS OF PUTNAM. 557 

** Anchor was weighed at 2 p. M., Sunday, and our homeward voyage begun in a 
snow-storm. Heavy drift-ice was moving rapidly to the southwest. This ice was 
of very peculiar construction and of varied tints, with height from three to thirty 
feet. Before the gale began, which was previously mentioned as occurring on the 
24th, the ice began drifting from the northeast, in a contrary direction to its usual 
course, and I judged from the movement on Sunday, being identically the same, we 
would have another gale from the same quarter. My judgment was correct; for, 
on Monday, the gale commenced in earnest. We passed Point Belcher, at 9 A. M., 
August 28, and Icy Cape at 11 p. M., reached East Cape, Asia, Saturday, September 
20, and lay there Sunday and Monday. There is quite a large village located at 
East Cape, and the natives have a regularly installed chief — the only place we 
visited where we found a chief. We sailed from East Cape to the Diomedes Islands, 
reaching there in a gale from the East. Left the Diomedes at twelve midnight, 
bound for St. Lawrence Bay, and anchored inside the harbor at 3 p. m. next day. 
This bay is full of historic reminiscences connected with the burning of the U. S, 
steamer ' Rodgers,' of the Jeannette Relief Expedition. The natives came on board 
clothed in some of the apparel left them by the officers and crew of this ill-fated 
vessel. Several had recommendations from the Rodgers party, and in compliance 
with requests made therein, each one was supplied with tobacco, bread and molasses. 
One of the natives described to me the accident which befell Master Putnam of the 
Navy, and stated that some time after the ice-floe, bearing Putnam, drifted out to 
sea, a southeasterly wind brought the floe back to shore, and he saw the remains of 
Putnam on it, his face and hands much discolored and the body swollen. The ice 
did not remain long, but floated out again, moving toward the Arctic. 

"We left St. Lawrence Bay on September 8, and reached Plover Bay on 11th, 
at 2 p. M. Owing to cloudiness, I failed to get an observation of the sun on that day. 
On Tuesday the 9th, I left the vessel for shore at 7.30 A. m., but had to wait an hour 
for the fog to rise. Succeeded in getting two sights, but had to suspend operations, 
as the rain began to fall. It cleared up sufficiently by the afternoon to secure six 
sights through the clouds — three upper and three lower limb. 

We sailed from Plover Bay September 13, for Fort St. Michael's, to return the 
native, Kan-u-ark, who shipped with us at that place. Shortly after leaving Plover 
Bay a gale sprang up, which compelled us to alter our course and run to the south 
of St. Lawrence Island. At 5 p. m. of the 14th, the^^ship struck a reef of hidden 
rocks, not marked on chart, about six miles south of the island. For a while it 
looked as if we would winter in this region, or else go to the bottom. The heavy 
sea favored the vessel in getting off*. The pumps were manned, and, to our^satis- 
faetion, we found but little water making. Made St. Michael's September 17. While 
at this place I made informal inspection of the Signal Office. Left St. Michael's on 
the 20th, and touched at Goiovin Bay same date, On the 28th of September, in 
Bering Sea, the barometer commenced falling rapidly, and a fierce gale sprang up 
from the East, which soon blew with so much violence that we were oblio-ed to take 
in all our canvas and heave to under a double-reefed mainsail and foresail. We 
expected by the next day that it would have blown itself out and the worst be over. 



558 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

but it only increased in fury, and for the next day, and the next, and for full five, we 
were tossed to and fro, at the mercy of such a storm as I hope I shall never again 
experience. By the time the storm was over, the entire party were worn out, and 
the patience exhibited under such circumstances certainly became a virtue. We 
passed through Unimak Pass on the oth of October. Our voyage from thence across 
the Pacific to San Francisco was, on the whole, favorable, and we reached the latter 
place October 2/' 

ray's return. 

Lieutenant Ray's party were unfortunately recalled by a positive 
enactment of Congress at its Session of 1882-83. They arrived at 
Washington in October 1883. 

The full Report of the work executed at Ooglaamie is being pre- 
pared by the Lieutenant, while these sheets are passing through the 
press; his reductions of the observations made and arrangement of 
other material will probably require a period of some months, and will 
be published by the Chief Signal Officer. They will be looked for with 
much interest. 



IlSrCIDENTAL BEJSTBFITS OF EXPLORATION. 

A most important gain resulting from Arctic exploration is the ex- 
tension of geographical knowledge by the discoveries which have added 
a large surface to our maps and charts. They have done more. The 
discoveries have increased the domain of civilization and commerce, 
bringing under English rule a new and large section of the American 
Continent, and opening up the acquisition of Alaska by the United 
States. To cite the language of Hon. Judge Daly, President of the 
American Geographical Society : — 

" Explorations for the discoveiy of the Northwest Passage, and those sent out for 
the relief of Sir John Franklin or otlier absent explorers, resulted in the discovery of 
that great region lying within the Arctic Circle between 60° and 130° west longitude 
up to Cape Parry 71° 23' west longitude, and 77° 6' north latitude ; or, from Davis Strait 
to Cape Bathurst ; embracing Banks, Prince Albert, and Prince Patrick's Lands, Mel- 
ville Island and Sound, McClintock's Channel, Bathurst Island, Victoria, Prince of 
Wales, and King William Land, Boothia, and Gulf of Boothia, North Somerset, North 
Devon, Melville Peninsula, Cockburn Island, Grinnell, EUesmere, and Washington 
Lands, Lancaster, Eclipse, and Jones' Sounds, Wellington Channel, Kellett, Barrow 



RESULTS OF EXPLORATIONS. 559 

Straits, Franklin Straits, Peel, Sir James Ross, and the Fury and Ilecla Straits, Re- 
gent's Inlet, and the discovery in 1833, by Sir James Ross, of the North Magnetic 
Pole.' " 

To these discoveries in the West are to be added the lands outlying 
the Siberian Coasts, now, for the first time in the world's history, 
circumnavigated. The Circumpolar Map to be found in the pocket of 
the volume shows the chief localities visited and the names of the 
explorers, the latest American visits being noticed. 

At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, in 1865, Captain 
Sherard Osborn said : — 

" In the year 1818 Baffin's discoveries on the one hand and those of Bering upon 
the other, with dots for the mouths of the Mackenzie and Hearn Rivers, were all we 
knew of the strange labyrinth of lands and waters now accurately delineated upon 
our charts of the Arctic Zone. Sailors and travellers in thirty-six years have accom- 
plished all this ; not always, be it remembered, in well-stored ships, sailing rapidly 
from point to point, but for the most part by patient toiling on foot, or coasting in 
open boats round every bay and fiord. Sir Leopold McClintock tells the Royal 
Dublin Society that he estimates the foot explorations accomplished in the search for 
Franklin alone at about forty thousand miles. Yet during those thirty-six years of 
glorious enterprise by ship, by boat, and by sledge, England only fairly lost one ex- 
pedition and one hundred and twenty-eight souls out of forty-two successive exj^edi- 
tions, and has never lost a sledge party out of about one hundred that have toiled 
within the Arctic Circle. Show me upon the globe an equal amount of geographical 
discovery, or in history as arduous achievement, with a smaller amount of human 
sacrifice, and then I will concede that Arctic Exploration has entailed more than its 
due amount of suffering." 

At one of the meetings of the American Geographical Society of 
New York, Mr. Henry Grinnell replied to questions of like character 
by stating some of the results in the extension of commerce and 
trade : — 

" 1. Sir H. Gilbert's discovery of the cod fisheries of Newfoundland. 

♦' 2. From Davis' discoveries the great whale fisheries of the West. 

" 3. From the discoveries of Hudson (who also discovered and sailed into our 
North River, which now bears his name, while on an Arctic voyage,), Hudson's 
Ray, and the operations of the great fur companies. 

" 4. Sir John Ross ; the whale fishery of the North and northwest of Baffin's Bay. 

"5. Captain Parry; whale fishery of Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and Prince 
Reo-ent's Inlet. 



560 



AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 



" 6. Admiral Beechey ; whale fishery of Bering Straits, in which, in the space of 
two years, the whalers of Nantucket and New Bedford obtained cargoes from which 
it is said they have realized eight millions of dollars." 

In addition to the last of these statements from Mr. Grinnell, in 
which he refers to the discoveries by Admiral Beechey, R. N., must be 
taken into account the later and still more profitable explorations made 
by the officers of the American Navy and Merchant Marine. By these 
explorations the safety and success of the whaling fleets have been very 
materially forwarded. 

" Far beyond the profits of the whale fisheries also is to be placed 
the daily increasing value of the trade in the fur-seal and seal-otter 
skins to the merchant companies, and the revenue derived from these 
to the U. S. Government. Ten years ago, the gross value of the fur 
trade of Alaska exceeded one million dollars. The revenue of the 
U. S. Government from the seal-islands alone was $300,000 per annum.. 
For the last ten years respectively, the revenue per annum as stated oa 
the books of the Treasury Department has been the following : — 

Table of Revenue from the Alaska Fisheries. 



Tear. 


Tax on Sealskins. 


Eent. 


Total. 


1873 


$252,181.12 


$55,000.00 


$307,181.12 


1874 


301,610.42 


55,000.00 


356,610.42 


1875 


262.494.75 


55,000.00 


317,494.75 


1876 


262,584.00 


55,000.00 


317,584.00 


1877 


236,155.50 


55,J0O.OO 


291,155.50 


1878 


198,255.75 


55,000.00 


253,255.75 


1879 


262.447.50 


53,000.00 


317,447.50 


1880 


262,400.25 


55,000.00 


317,400.25 


1881 


262.594.50 


55,000.00 


317,594.50 


1882 


261,885.75 


55,000.00 


316,885.75 


1883 


262,295.25 


55,000.00 


317,295.25 



The increasing facilities for safe trading with this newly acquired 
territory, are to be credited to such explorations and surveys of intricate 
passes and harbors as have been made by the expeditions named in this 
volume. The purchase of Alaska has been fully vindicated. 



REAL GAINS. 561 

SMALL LOSS OF LIFE. 

To these statements of results may be added with interest the fact 
that the loss of life in these Arctic Explorations has been remarkably 
small. The number of deaths occurring in all the ships of the expedi- 
tions sent for the relief of Franklin, and on those engaged in later 
Arctic explorations up to the date of 1873, had not equalled two per 
cent of the officers and men employed. Nor have the casualties in the 
recent German, English, Danish, Swedish, and American expeditions 
equalled those ordinarily occurring among the ships on naval duty in 
other regions of the globe. They bear an inappreciable proportion to 
the losses in the Merchant, and especially the Whaling Marine, in proof 
of which it is enough to recall the statement of Lieutenant Maury, 
" that the losses by wreckage around the British Isles during a single 
year, exceeded the aggregate of all those within the history of Arctic 
exploration." 

CONCLUSIONS. 

It has been shown, in the beginning of this volume, that Explora- 
tion in the Arctic Zones had its origin in the desire to find a North- 
west passage from Europe to the Indies, a problem which involved a 
crossing at or near the Pole. The history of these efforts has also 
shown the other more valuable purposes of the Expeditions which they 
themselves from time to time developed, the extension of Geographical 
discovery, and of the domain of Science in its various departments, to 
which must be added the more direct material benefits to Commerce 
and Navigation. 

The problem of the Northwest passage is no longer looked upon as 
of hopeful solution or utility. Science has ceased to expect from its 
discovery the advantages for commerce and navigation, the hope of 
which stimulated the Explorers ; and perhaps less can possibly be 
realized from the justly-renowned completed Northeast passage around 
Asia than this, at first sight, seems to promise. Yet the incidental 
results of each of them possesses high value. Maury may again be 
quoted ; 



562 AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS IK THE ICE ZONEiS. 

" The expeditions which have been sent to explore unknown seas 
have contributed largely to the stock of human knowledge, and they 
have added renown to nations, and lustre to diadems. Navies are not 
all for war. Peace has its conquests, Science its glories ; and no navy 
can boast of brighter chaplets than those which have been gathered in 
the fields of geographical exploration and physical research." 

Of the problem of the Pole, Lieutenant Payer, of the German 
North Polar Expedition of 1869, has justly said that " it aims at deter- 
mining limits of land and water, at perfecting that network of lines 
with which comparative science seeks to surround our planet, even to 
the Pole, the discovery of the physical laws which regulate climates, 
the currents of the atmosphere and the sea, and the analogies of geol- 
ogy with the earth as we see it." 

It must be admitted that the hope of reaching the ninetieth degree 
of the north or south latitude is not encouraging. The Paleocrystic ice 
forms an impenetrable barrier, a conflict with which by the strongest 
iron-built ship were hopeless, and the forewarnings of Barrow, ex- 
pressed to the Royal Geographical Society more than forty years ago, 
against all efforts toward the extremest north by sledging^ have con- 
firmed themselves in the severe experiences of Markham, in lat. 83° 26 
N. Even that reserved, — one might say the forlorn hope — of theo- 
rists, the Bering Strait route, has been eliminated by the saddening 
shadows of the " Jeannette," an elimination in itself of high value. 

It is safe to say that at least long years must elapse before even 
American or English liberality will sanction an expedition for the bare 
purpose of reaching the Pole. Volunteers from naval and civil life 
are still ready to offer themselves for the fascinations of the most 
daring Arctic adventure, but no branch of the United States Govern- 
ment will lend an ear. But, for the further prosecution of researches 
in the collateral branches of Science, for the extension of geographical 
knowledge, of commerce, civilization, and Christianity, new expedi- 
tions will be set on foot. Arctic Exploration will not soon be aban- 
doned. Baron Nordenskiold is at this moment reported as proposing 
an expedition to the Antarctic, in which ocean no expedition has 
attempted to make any persistent exploration, or even to winter there. 



FUKTHEll EXPLOKATIONS. 563 

" England," says Maury, '' through Cook and Ross ; Russia, through 
Bellmgshausen ; France, through D'Urville ; and the United States, 
through Wilkes, have sent expeditions to the South Sea." With any 
remembrance of the unprecedented appliances bestowed by Science on 
this generation, who shall say that by some still further advance prob- 
lems will not be solved on which the fullest light can be throwm only by 
researches in the regions in which nature exerts her extremest forces ? 
With these results will also be reaped the extension of the blessings 
of civilization to races as untutored as unknown. To-day the Fiji 
Islanders seek a confederation with Australian interests. But before 
the explorations in the Antarctic Sea, what were Australia itself and 
New Zealand but cannibal lands? What limit can be set to the 
result of exploration and survey, and the closer intercourse of the 
nations? What limit to the advancement of knoAvledge, which for its 
advance needs the extension of research to the furthest possible 
bounds ? 



While the pages of this volume are upon the press, preparations 
have been made for the relief of the party at Lady Franklin Bay, and 
the remains of DeLong and his comrades of the " Jeannette," have been 
received with appropriate obsequies in New York. 

The Board of Officers appointed to recommend a plan for the relief 
of the Greely expedition, consisting of Gen. W. B. Hazen and Capt. 
G. W. Davis of the Army, and Capt. J. A. Greer and Lieut.-Com. B. 
H. McCalla of the Navy, has made a report which has been approved 
by the Secretary of the Navy, sanctioned by Act of Congress, and 
places the outlay for the expedition entirely at the discretion of the 
President. 

A memorable feature in the history of the United States Expedition 
for the relief of Lieut. Greely is the addition of a gift vessel from the 
British government, the "Alert," the advance ship of Sir Geo. Nares' 
Arctic Expedition of 1875. This ship is peculiarly fitted for the 
intended service and, as will be remembered, wintered in Lady Frank 
lin Bay. This international courtesy, accepted by the President and 
Congress, is a grateful reciprocation of the presentation by the United 



564 AJVIERICAN EXPLORATIONS IN THE ICE ZONES. 

States of the " Resolute," of Sir E. Belcher's Franklin Squadron, a 
ship picked up at great personal risk at sea by Capt. James Budington 
of New London, and delivered to Queen Victoria by Capt. Hartstene 
in person, after his own rescue of Kane. Thus are linked the imperish- 
able deeds of noble daring and of national good-will: proving the 
story of Arctic adventure to be fraught with exhibitions of the finest 
traits of elevated purposes and of characters formed by Arctic experi- 
ence and Arctic study. 

This last remark will be sensibly appreciated by the many at home 
and abroad, who are sharing to-day in the last tributes to the brave 
DeLong and his comrades. The records of this, so exhaustively 
furnished by the New York Herald^ closes the long and generous sup- 
port of the expedition by its proprietor. 

Homage to the martyrs fallen in the cause of science and of their 
country has never been so fully marked. The sending out to the 
frozen wastes of Siberia home caskets for the dead ; their transporta- 
tion of 8,000 miles through foreign lands, which everywhere offered 
tributes to the funeral cortege; and the heart-throbs of their native 
shores until the dead were safe within their resting-places, contrast 
themselves strongly with the cold indifference and neglect of past ages 
towards the discoverers of new worlds. The sufferings of the fallen in 
our day prove the occasion of such exhibitions of national good-will 
and of honor to true heroism as relieve in part the sorrows borne since 
the fatal September, 1881. There are, and ever will be, fair fruits born 
out of such acts of high aspirations, energy, and fortitude in those who 
have gone out and in their liberal supporters; exem^jlars for the lifting 
up of the discouraged, the education of the young. Certainly volun- 
teers for the paths of discovery will, as now, freely offer themselves 
until the fullest additions to the domain of science have had their 
ingathering. 



APPENDIX. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX TO THE CHIEF PUBLICATIONS ON POLAR EXPLORATIONS, 
FROM THE DATE OF THE REVIVAL OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION.* 

1818. Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic Kegions. Sir John Barrow. 

1819. Journal of a Voyage to the Arctic Regions in 1819. A. Fisher. 

" Voyage for Inquiring into the Probability of a IS'orthwest Passage, Baffin's Bay, 
and Davis Strait. Captain Sir John Ross. 

1820. Account of the Arctic Regions, etc., Greenland and Spitzbergen. W. Scoresby. 

1821. A Journal of a Voyage of "Hecla" and "Griper" to the Arctic Regions in 

1819-20; Parry Islands. A.Fisher. 
1821. Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, etc. ; Parry's 
Islands. W. E. Parry. 

1823. Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, Including Researches on the 

East Coast of Greenland. W. Scoresby. 
" Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in 1819-22, etc. Sir J. 
Franklin. 

1824. Private Journal During Captain Parry's Second Voyage; Parry's Islands. Lyon. 
*' Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey to the Frozen Sea, etc. J. D. Cochrane. 

*' Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, 1821-2-3, 
etc. ; Parry Islands. Sir W. E. Parry. 

1825. Account of Experiments to Determine the Figure of the Earth. Also a Brief Ac- 

count of Captain Clavering's Voyage to the Arctic Regions. Major-General 
E. Sabine. 
" Brief Narrative, Repulse Bay, etc., Hudson Strait. Captain Lyon, R. N. 

1826. Journal of a Third Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, 1824-25, 

etc. ; Parry Islands. Sir W. E. Parry. 
1828. Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole in 1827; Spitzbergen. Sir W. E. 

Parry. 
" Second Expedition to the Shores of North America. Franklin and Richardson. 
1832. Undersogelses-Reise til Ostkysten of Gronland, etc. ; East Greenland. W. A. 

Graah. 

1834. Arctic Expeditions from England from 1497-1833. Anonymous. 
The Position of the North Magnetic Pole. Sir J. C. Ross. 

1835. The Last Voyage of Captain J. C. Ross to the Arctic Regions, etc. R. Huish. 

" Supplement to Sir James Ross's Second Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage, 
Boothia Felix, etc. ; Parry Islands. S. Braithwaite. 

* The list here given, taken chiefly from the Manual prepared for the English expedition of 1875, 
and continued to the present date, presents the order of publication rather than that of the voyages 
narrated. c 

565 



666 



APPENDIX. 



1835. Narrative of a Residence in the Arctic Regions 1829-33. Captain Sir J. Ross. 

" The Last Voyage of Captain Sir J. Ross for the Discovery of a Northwest Passao-e. 

R. Huish. 
" Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a Northwest Passage. Captain Sir 

J. Ross. 
" Sur les Decouvertes Faites en Gronland, etc. M. de la Roquette. 

1836. Narrative of a Journey to the Arctic Ocean in 1833-35, etc. R. King. 

" Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Great Fish River, etc. Sir G. 
Back. 

1837. Narrative of an Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland, etc. ; Translation by 

MacDougal. W. A. Graah. 

1838. Narrative of an Expedition to the Arctic Shores, etc. Sir Geo. Back. 

1838-40. Voyage en Gronland pendant 1835 et 1836, etc. ; South Greenland and Iceland. 
P. Gaimard. 

1839. Reise auf dem Eismeere in 1820-24, etc. ; Asia. F. von Wrangell. 

" Sur la Frequence des Orages dans les Regions Arctiques. K. E. von Baer. 
" Retour en France de la Recherche; Rapport sur la Seconde Campagne au Spitz- 
berg. Captain Fabvre. 
1840 and 1841. Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea in 1820-23; Siberia. F. von 

Wrangell. Edited by Major E. Sabine, R. A. 
1843. Voyage towards the North Pole in 1818, etc. ; Spitzbergen. F. W. Beechey. 

1845. Americas Arctiske Landes garale Geographic, etc. C. C. Rafn. 

1846. Voyages within the Arctic Regions from 1818, etc. Sir J. Barrow. 

1847. AperQu de I'Ancienne Geographic des Regions Arctiques de I'Amerique. 
1848-56. Arctic Expeditions. A Collection of Papers Relative to the Recent Arctic Expe- 
ditions, etc. 

1850. Arctic Expeditions. Eskimos and English Vocabulary. 
" Eskimo and English Vocabulary. J. Washington. 

" Arctic Voyage to Baffin's Bay, Baffin's Bay, and Lancaster Sound. R. A. Goodsir. 
" Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846-47. North 

America and Southern parts of Parry's Island. J. Rae. 
" The Arctic Expedition of 1849, etc. H. Kellett and others. 
*' The Franklin Expedition; or, Considerations for the Discovery of our Countrymen 

in the Arctic Region. W. Scoresby. 
" Narrative of Arctic Discovery from the Earliest Period. J. J. Shillinglaw. 

1851. Arctic Searching Expeditions of 1850-51, etc. 

'' Illustrated Geography and Hydrography, Wellington Channel Section. J. Mangles. 
" Arctic Searching Expedition of 1850-51, etc. 

'' Voyage of the "Prince Albert" in Search of Sir J. Franklin, etc.; Baffin's Bay 
and Parry Islands. W. P. Snow. 

1852. Om den Geographiske Beskaffenhed af de Danske. Handels-distrikter: Nord- 

gronland, etc. ; Greenland. H. Rink. 
1852-57. Gronland Geographisk og Statistisk Beskrevet. H. Rink. 
1852. Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal ; Baffin's Bay and Parry Islands. Osborn. 

Remarks on the English Maps of Arctic Discovery in 1850-51. Peter Force. 

Additional Papers Relative to the Arctic Expedition (in Search of Franklin) under 
Captain Austin. Parliamentary Paper. 

Further Correspondence Connected with the Arctic Expedition, etc., in Search of 
Franklin. Parliamentary Paper. 

Report of the Committee to Inquire into the Report on the Recent Arctic Expedi- 
tions in Searcli of Franklin, Parliamentary Paper. 

The Search for Franklin. A suggestion, etc. A. Petermann. 



APPENDIX. 567 

1852. Journal of a Voyage in 1850-51; Davis Strait, Baffin's Bay, and Franklin Archi- 

pelago. P. C. Suthei-land. 

1853. Across to an Open Polar Sea, etc. E. K. Kane. 
" Greenland Eskimo Vocabulary, etc. 

" Franklin's Footsteps; a Sketch of Greenland, etc. C. R. Markham. 

" Second Voyage of the " Prince Albert " ; South Part of Parry Islands. Kennedy. 

" Ten Months among the Tuski, with an Arctic Boat Expedition, etc. W. H. 
Hooper. 

" A Summer Search for Sir J. Franklin, etc., in the " Isabel," in 1852; Davis Strait 
and Baffin's Bay. E. A. Inglefield. 

" The United States Grinnell Expedition, in Search of Sir J. Franklin, etc.; South- 
east Parry Islands. E. K. Kane. 

*' Narrative of Three Cruises to the Arctic Regions. B. Seeman. 

1854. Journal d'un Voyage aux Mers Polaires, etc. J. R. Bellot. 

*' Papers Relative to the Recent Arctic Expeditions in Search of Sir John Franklin, 

etc. 
" Narrative of a Boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in 1852, etc. R. 

McCormick. 
" Arctiske Stromning. C. Irminger. 

1855. Last of the Arctic Voyages; a Narrative of the Expeditions of Her Majesty's Ship 

" Assistance" in Search of Sir J. Franklin, in 1852-54. Sir E. Belcher. 
" Coup-d'oeil d' Ensemble sur les Differentes Expeditions Arctiques, etc. V. A. Malte 

Brun. 
" Voyage in the Arctic Regions. F. Mayne. 

1856. Observations Meteorologicse per Annos 1832-54 in Groenlandia Factse. C. C. 

Ostergaarde and others. 
" Arctic Explorations. The Second Grinnell Expedition, etc.; Smith Sound, etc. 

E. K. Kane. 
" A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of the "Prince Albert" in Search of Sir 

J. Franklin. W. Kennedy. 
*' Voyages and Travels in the Arctic Regions. Copy of a Letter, etc. J. Rae. 
" Discovery of the Northwest Passage, 1850-54. R. C. M. McClure. 
" On the Open Water at the Great Polar Basin. R. White. 
" Discovery of the Northwest Passage by the "Investigator," etc.; Southern Part 

of Parry Island. S. Osborn. 

1857. Letters from High Latitudes, being an Account of Iceland, Spitzbergen, etc. Lord 

Dufferin. 
" The Voyage of Her Majesty's "Resolute" to the Arctic Regions, 1852-54; Parry 

Islands. G. F. McDougall. 
" Discovery of the Northwest Passage. McClure. 
" Erindringer fra Polarlandene, 1850-55, etc. C. Petersen. 
" Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the Northwest Passage. Armstrong. 
" Arctic Explorations and Discoveries during the Nineteenth Century. Si M. 

Smucker. 

1858. The Northwest Passage, etc. ; Southeast Part of Parry Islands. J. Brown. 

1859. The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas, etc.; Southeast Part of Parry 

Islands. F. L. McClintock. 
1859-61. Polar Regions. Sir J. Richardson. 

1860. Astronomical Observations made on the Northwest Coast of Greenland, etc. 

E. K. Kane. 
" Tidal Observations in the Arctic Seas, etc. E. K. Kane. 
" Explorations, Arctiques, etc. P. Chaix, 



568 APPENDIX. 

1860. Arctic Boat Journey in 1854, etc. I. I. Hayes. Boston. 

" The Career, Last Voyage, and Fate of Sir J. Franklin. S. Osborn. 

" On the Lost Polar Expedition, etc. W. P. Snow. 

*' A Sequel to the Northwest Passage. J. Brown. 

1861. Seasons with the Sea-horses ; Spitzbergen. J. Lamont. 

" Physical Geography of the Sea. Lieutenant Maury. Enlarged Edition. London 
and jS^ew York. 

1863. Notice sur les Peches du Groenland. C. Irminger. 

" Geografiska Ortobestammningar pa Spetsbergen af Professor A. E. Nordenskiold, 

etc. D. C. Lindhagen. 
" Geografisk och Geognostisk Beskrifning ofver Nordostra Delarne af Spetsbergen, 

A. E. Nordenskiold. 

1864. Renseignements sur les Premiers Habitants de la Cote Occidentale du Groenland, 

etc. C. C. Rafn. 
" Life with the Eskimos, etc., Frobisher Bay and Davis Strait. C. F. Hall. 
1867. The Open Polar Sea, etc. ; Smith's Sound. Dr. J. J. Hayes. 
" Ueber die Polarlander. O. Heer. 
" Gronland und die Groulander, etc. H. Helms. 

" The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher; by Rear Admiral R. Colli nson. London. 
(Hakluyt Series.) 
1869. Fate of Sir J. Franklin. The Voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic Seas, etc.; 
Parry Islands. Sir F. L. McClintock. 
" The Polar World. Dr. G. Hartwig. 8vo. Harper Brothers, New York. 
1871. Land of Desolation; South Greenland. Dr. Hayes. 

1873. The Threshold of the Unknown Regions. Notices of Arctic Discovery; East Coast 

of Greenland, etc. Clements R. Markham. 
'* Gateway to the Polynia; Spitzbergen. J.C.Wells. London. 

1874. Whaling Cruise to Baffin's Bay, and Rescue of the Crew of the " Polaris " ; Baffin's 

Bay and Southeast Parry Islands. H. A. Markham. 
" Die Zweite Deutsche Nordpolarfahrt. The German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70, 

under Koldewey; and Translation by H. Bates. 
*' The German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70 ; the Hansa. Captain Koldewey. Edited 

by H. W. Bates, Assistant Secretary Royal Geographical Society, London. 
*' A Whaling Cruise to Baffin's Bay and the Gulf of Boothia. A . H. Markham, London. 

1875. A Selection of Papers on Arctic Geography and Ethnology, Reprinted and Pre- 

sented to the Arctic Expedition of 1875. London. 
" Instructions for the use of the Scientific Expedition to the Arctic Regions. 

London. 
" The Arctic Navy List, or A Century of Arctic and Antarctic Officers, 1773-1873. 

C. R. Markham, F. R. S. 
" Remarks on Davis Strait, Baffin's Bay, Smith's Sound. Compiled from Various 

Authorities. 
" Tales and Traditions of the Eskimos, with a Sketch of their Habits, Religion, Lan- 
guage, and other Peculiarities, by Dr. Henry Rink. Edited by Dr. Robert 

Brown, London. 
"■ Report to United States Treasury Department on the Condition of Affairs in the 

Territory of Alaska. H. W. Elliott. 

1876. Narrative of the North Polar Expedition. United States' Ship "Polaris," Captain 

Chas. P. Hall, Commander; by Rear- Admiral C. H. Davis, United States Navy. 

Imperial 8vo. Published by the Navy Departraent ; edition exhausted. 
" Two Voyages of the "Pandora," in 1875 and 1876, by Sir Allen Young, R. N. R. 
" Yachting in the Arctic Seas. J. Lamont, F. R. G. S. 



APPENDIX. 569 

1876. Under the Northern Lights. The Cruise of the "Pandora"; by J. A. McGahan, 

London. 
" Memoirs of Hans Hendrick, the Arctic Traveller. Written by himself. 1853-1876. 
Translated by Dr. Rink. 

1877. Danish Greenland. Dr. Henry Rink. Edited by Dr. R. Brown, London. 

" New Lands Within the Arctic Circle. The Voyage of the " Tegethoff." 1872-74. 

Julius Payer. 2 vols. 8vo. D. Appleton, New York. 
" Arctic Expeditions from British and Foreign Shores, from the Earliest Times to 
the Expeditions of 1875-76; by D. Murray Smith, F. R. G. S. 4to. Edinburgh. 
" The Dutch in the Arctic Seas. Samuel R. Van Campen, London. 

1878. The English Arctic Expedition of 1875. Captain Nares. (Parliamentary Paper, 

C. 2176.) 
*' Voyage to the Open Polar Sea. Captain Sir Geo. Nares, R. N. 2 vols., 8vo. 
" The Shores of the Polar Sea; a Narrative of the Arctic Expedition 1875-1876. Dr. 

E. L. Moss, Her iMajesty's Ship " Alert." Imperial folio, London. 
" The Great Frozen Sea; the Voyage of the "Alert." Captain A. H. Markham, 

R. N. 

1879. The Two Voyages of the '* Pandora," in 1875 and 1876. Sir Allen Young. 

" Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by Chas. F. Hall. Professor J. 

E. Nourse, IT. S. N. Published by United States Senate; edition exhausted. 
" Arctic Experiences of Captain Geo. E. Tyson; the "Polaris." Edited by E. V. 

Blake. Harper Brothers, New York. 
" The Cruise of the "Florence." Bulletin of the United States' National Museum; 

by Ludwig Kiimlien. 
" Report upon the Customs District, Public Service, and Resources of Alaska; by 

W. G. Morris. 8vo. Washington. 
" The Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiold. Illustrated. 1858-79. McMillan 

& Co. 

1880. Report on Alaska and its People. Captain G. W. Bailed, of the Revenue Cutter 

"Rush." 

1881. A Polar Reconnoissance; being the Voyage of the "Isbjorn" to Novaya Zembla, 

in 1879. A. H. Markham, F. R. G. S. 

" The Voyage of the " Vega" round Asia and Europe. A. E. Nordenskiold. Trans- 
lated by A. Leslie. 2 vols., 8vo. London. 

" Reports of the Cruises of theL^nited States Revenue Steamer " Corwin," 1880 and 
1881, in the Arctic Ocean. Hooper, Muir, Nelson & Rosse. 

1882. Reports of Captain L. A. Beardslee, U. S. N. : Operations of the "Jamestown" 

in the Waters of Alaska. 
" Alaska; by Sheldon Jackson, D. D. 

" Report of Affairs in Alaska; by L. A. Beardslee. 8vo. Washington. 
" Nordenskiold' s Voyage round Asia and Europe; the "Vega." A. Hovgaard, 

London. 

1883. The Voyage of the " Jeannette." The Ship and Ice Journals of George W. ^De- 

Long, Lieutenant Commander, U. S. N., and Commander of the Polar Expedition 
of 1879-1881. Edited by his wife, Emma DeLong. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

" The Jeannette, and a Complete Encyclopaedia of all Voyages and Expeditions to 
the North Pole. Captain R. Perry. Newman and Coburn Publishing Company, 
Chicago. 

" Narrative of the "Jeannette." Lieutenant Danenhower, U. S. N. J. R. Osgood & Co. 

" Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry, Convened at the Navy Department, Washing- 
ton, D. C, October 5, to Investigate the Loss in the Arctic Seas of the Exploring 
Steamer "Jeannette." 



570 APPENDIX. 

1883. Work of the Signal Service in the Arctic Regions. Signal Service Notes No. Y. 
" Report on Lady FrankUn Bay Expedition. Signal Service Notes No. X. 

" Meteorological and Physical Observations on the East Coast of British America, 
by Orray Taft Sherman. Professional Papers of the Signal Service, No. XI. 

1884. American Explorations in the Ice Zones, 1850-1882; by Professor J. E. Nourse, 

TJ. S. N. D. Lothrop & Co,, Boston. 

For the chief scientific reviews of the labors of Arctic explorers see journals, bulletins, 
and reports of the American and foreign Societies, especially those of the American 
Geographical Society, tlie Smithsonian Institution, the American Journal of Science, the 
Royal Geographical Society, the Societe de Geographic of Paris, and the bulletins of the 
Imperial Geographical Societies of Russia, Sweden, and Holland. References to the 
volumes of these which contain Arctic material will be found generally in full in the 
"Die Literatur iiber die Polar Regionem der Erde," von Drs. Josef Chavanne, A. Karpf 
and F. R. LeMonnier, Wien, 1674. For a synopsis of the work of each American explorer 
under commission by the United States Government, see Reports of the Secretary of the 
Navy, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Treasury. 



INDEX. 



AcTKA, visited by the Fenimore Cooper in search of the Monongahela, 117 

Advance, the, equipped by Grinnell, 49; sails from New York, 50; crosses Melville Bay, 
54; reaches Beechey Island, 55; returns to New York, 59; loaned to Kane, 65; 
equipped, 68; in Kensselaer harbor, 71; abandoned, 88. 

Agloo, or Igloo seal, 195. 

Aglooka (Crozier), described to Hall, 248. 

Albatross of the North Pacific, 505 ; of the Antarctic, 506. 

Allen, William, letter to Thomas Penn, 27. 

Alliance, the cruise of, 485. 

Ambler, .J. M., surgeon of the Jeannette, 382; describes Bennett Island, 401. 

American early voyages for Northwest Passage, 24. 

American explorations, table of, 527 ; beneficial results, 558. 

Amoukta Passage the, examined by Brooke, Fillebrown, and Knorr, 129. 

Andromeda Tetragona, 72. 

Angekos, and Ankooting, 196, 216, 245. 

Antarctic zone, compared with Arctic, 18, 491 ; discoveries in by Palmer, 494 ; by Wilkes, 
508; by Boss, 513; by D'Urville, 514; ice within, 522, 524. 

Antisell, Dr., on the Kuro Siwo, 368. 

Arctic exploration, the field of, 17; original object, 20; beneficial results, 20, 525; De- 
Haven's, 41; Kane's, 65; Rodgers', 108; Hayes, J32; Hall's first, 161; second, 199; 
third, 269; Schwatka's, 345; DeLong's, 363; Hooper's, 428; Long's, 458; Raynor's, 
463; Berry's, 473; Wadleigh's,485; table of, 527. 

Arctic night, described by Hayes, 144; by DeLong, 393. 

Argo, the voyage of (1753), 25. 

Auroras seen by Hall, 239, 241; by Mauch, 306, 309; by Powell, 556. 

Baber, G. F., Midshipman, lost at sea, 112. 

Bache, A. D., Superintendent Coast Survey, aids the Grinnell expedition, 60, 65; endorses 

Arctic exploration, 526. 
Baker's death, 76. ' 

Barrow, Sir John, revives Arctic exploration, 30; sends out a tablet in memory of Bellot, 

57 ; endorses Arctic exploration, 529. 
Barrow Point, meteorological station at, 553. 

Beechey Island, visited by DeHaven, 56; visit attempted by Kane, 78. 
Bennett, James G., purchases the Pandora, 364; interview with Dr. Petermann, 365; sends 

Jackson to search for DeLong, 407; Bennett Island discovered, 400. 
Bering Strait, voyage to by Cook, 23. 
Berry's, R. M., Lieutenant, search for DeLong, 473, 527. 
Bessels, E., sails with Hall, 270; pendulum observations, 307. 

571 



572 INDEX. 

Bliss, S. J., Acting Lieutenant, lost at sea, 112. 

Boats, the three, leave Bennett's Island, 402; Semenovski Island 403. 

Boggs, W. B., Purser on the Vincennes, 111. 

Bonsall, Amos, sledge party under Kane, 73. 

Braine, D. L., Captain, sails for relief of Hall, 325; returns to New York, 326. 

Bridge, W. K., Acting Lieutenant, lost at sea, 112. 

Brooke, John M., Lieutenant, U. S. N., on the Yincennes, 111; notes of the loss of the 

Porpoise, 113; survey on the Japanese coast, 114; deep sea sounding apparatus, 118; 

notes at Semiavine Straits, 123. 
Brooks, Henry, second officer of the Kescue, 47. 
Budington, S. O., sails with Hall, 270; commands the Polaris, 298; fails to get North, 

312 ; rescued by the Ravemscraig, 329. 

Cabots, the voyages of the, 21. - 

Capes, Alexander, 84, 93; Athol, 137; Beechey, 57; Constitution, 96; East, 124; Fare- 
well, 53; Independence, 96 ; Isabella, 78; Lieber, 148; Lisburne, 433 ; Riley, 57 ; Sabine, 
542; Serdze Kamen, 377, 451; Spencer, 56; Union, 147; York, 136, 326. 

Carter, R. R., Passed Midshipman, U. S. N., on the Rescue, 47. 

Chandler, W. E., Secretary of the Navy, telegram to by Melville, 413; orders to Danen- 
hower, 414; to Harber, 418; convenes Relief Board, 563. 

Chapell, R. H., assists Hall, 205. 

Chester, H. C, lands Hall, 209; sails on the Polaris, 279; boat journey, 310. 

Chipp, C. W., Lieutenant, U. S. N., Naval Record, 374; attempts landing on Herald 
Island, 380; aurora seen by, 394; on sick list, 397; commands second cutter, 402; 
searched for by Melville, 416 ; by Harber, 418. 

Clay, Henry, Hon., presents the Grinnell memorial, 46. 

Clayton, John, Secretary of State, letter to Lady Franklin, 42. 

Coast survey, United States, aids Kane's expedition, 65; aids Dr. Hayes' expedition, 133. 

Collins, Jerome, Jr. , meteorologist of the Jeannette, 373. 

Conger Fort, 537. 

Congress, United States, resolution for DeHaven's expedition, 44; appropriations for relief 
of Kane, 86; for Ringgold's expedition, 108; for Hall's third expedition, 269. 

Cook, James, Captain, Arctic voyage, 23; Antarctic voyage, 492, 519. 

Cooper, J. Fenimore, the, 109. 

Corwin, revenue steamer, the, sails in search of the whalers and DeLong, 429 ; second 
search, 447; officers of, 448. 

Currents of the Arctic, local only, 368. 

D ALL, W. H. , coast survey on the Kuro Siwo, 367. 

Danenhower, J., Lieutenant, U. S. N., joins DeLong at Havre, 565; placed on sick list, 
383; search for DeLong, 407; returns to United States, 408. 

Davenport, Captain, U. S. N., commands the Congress, 275. 

Davis, Jefferson, objects to Arctic appropriations, 47f 

Davis', John, voyages, 22. 

DeHaven, E. J., Lieutenant, commands first Grinnell expedition, 47; instructions of the 
department to, 48; drift in Wellington Channel, 59; final report to Navy Department, 
55 ; commendation by Secretary of Navy, 61. 

DeKraft, J. C. P., Commodore's chart of Bering Sea and North Pacific, 115. 

DeLong, G. W., Lieutenant, U. S. N., naval record, 363; proposes an Arctic exploration, 
364; chooses the Bering Strait route, 365; errs in this, 367; sails from San Francisco, 
373; visits Cape Serdze Kamen for Nordenskiold, 377; enters the pack, 378; abandons 
theory, 388; discovers Jeannette and Henrietta Island, 396; abandons the Jeannette, 



INDEX. 573 

398; discovers Bennett Island, 400; lands on Semenovski Island, 403; on the Delta, 

409; last journal notes, 411; buried by Melville, 414; his tomb visited by Harber, 420; 

brought to United States, 427. 
Diligence, voyage of the, 25. 
Disco, visited by DeHaven, 59; by Hartstene rescuing Kane, 91; by Braine, 325; by 

Greer, 326; by the Neptune, 546; by the Yantic and the Proteus, 548. 
Dobbin, Secretary, instructions to Hartstene, 91. 
Dogs, Eskimo, disease of, 253. 

Ebiekbixg (Joe), first met by Hall, 176; seal hunts, 230; history of, 340; accompanies 

Hall, second expedition, 206. 
Elder's, Dr., biography of Kane, 51. 
Eothen, the, sails from iS'ew York, 347. 

Erebus and Terror, visit to Tasmania, 31 ; sailing for Northwest Passage, 32. 
Eskimos or Innuits, first met by Hall, 176; Armon, Artooa, and Ouela, 210, 212; Armon's 

coast line, 243; feasts of, 215; games, 216; Eskimos of Etah, 82, 89; of the Northwest 

coast, 440. 
Expeditions, Arctic, Cabot's, 21 ; Davis', Hudson's, and Baffin's, 22 ; the Argo and Diligence, 

25; the Trent, 31; Franklin's, 32; for relief of Franklin, tables of, 35, 37; DeHaven' s, 

41; Kane's, 65; Rodgers', 108; Hayes', 132; Hall's, 162, 199, 269; Schwatka's, 345; 

DeLong's, 363; Hooper's, 438; Long's, 460; Eaynor's, 463; Berry's, 473; Wad- 

leigh's, 485. 

FiLLEBEOWX, T. S., Lieutenant, on the Yincennes, and naval record. 111; observa- 
tions, 122. 

Florence, the cruise of, 535. 

Folger, W. J. , Secretary of Treasury, tribute to Eodgers, 115. 

Foulke Fort, Hayes' winter quarters, 137. 

Franklin, Benjamin, Dr., secures a voyage for Northwest Passage, 25. 

Franklin, Sir John, early life, 30; voyage on the Trent, 31; journeys to North coast of 
America, 31; last expedition, 32; relief expeditions for, 35; monument in Waterloo 
Place, 39; in Westminster Abbey, 40; discovers Northwest Passage, 39, 266. 

Franklin, Lady J., letters to President Taylor, 41; monument to Sir John at Beechey 
Island, 57; invites Kane to make explorations, 68. 

Franklin expedition, records found by Hobson, 162; relics of, 38. 

Frobisher's, Martin, shorter route to Cathay, 21; three voyages, 186; relics of brought 
home by Hall, 203; Admiral Collinson's voyages of, 203. 

Fyffe, J. P., Lieutenant, attached to the Relief, 91. 

Geographical Society, American, receives Kane, 66; receives Hall, 165. 

Gilder, W. H., visits the Kinnepatoos, 349; sledge journey with Schwatka, 358; sums up 

the results of the expedition, 360. 
Glacier, Great, of Greenland, visited by Kane, 76, 102; system discussed by yHayes, 

153. 
Glassenapp, observing party from the Yincennes located on, 121. 
Godhavn, visited by Kane, 89; by Hall, 71; by the Florence, 536; by the Proteus, 538. 
Graves, the three found on Beechey Island, 56. 
Greenland, Northern extension of, 67, 95, 97. 

Greer, J. A., Commander, sails for relief of Hall, 324; returns to New York, 327. 
Greely's, A. W., Lieutenant, expedition to Lady Frankhn Bay, 5-37. 
Grier, Wm., Fleet Surgeon to exploring expedition. 111. 
Griflfin, S. P., U. S. N., commands the Rescue, 47. 



674 INDEX. 

Grinnell Land, discovered by DeHaven, 60; East coast of Grinnell Land discovered by 
Kane, 96 ; traced by Hayes, 132. 

Grinnell, Henry, visit to by Lady Franklin, 44; memorial to Congress, 45; equips the Ad- 
vance and the Rescue, 49; fits out the Advance for Kane, 65; presentation of vase to 
Kane, 104; aid to Hall's first expedition and second expedition, 205. 

Habersham, A. W., Lieutenant, on the loss of the Porpoise, 112. 

Hall, C. F., early Arctic studies, 162; sails on his first expedition, 167; at Cyrus Field's 
Bay, 174; discovers Frobisher's relics, 182; returns to United States, 198; sails on 
second expedition, 206; at Marble Island, 209; captures a whale, 233; at Fort Hope, 
235; first journey to King William Land, 244; to Igloolik, 250; to Cape Weynton, 
252; to Fury and Hecla Strait, 256; reaches King William Land, 261; sails in the 
Polaris, 270; last sledge journey, 293; despatch to Secretary of Navy, 295; death, 297; 
character, 331; medal from Geographical Society of Paris, 333; tablet erected by 
Nares, 338. 

Hancock, the steamer, 109. 

Harber, G. B., Lieutenant, U. S. N., sent out for the bodies of DeLong and his comrades, 
407; report to Secretary Chandler, 423; return to the United States, 427. 

Hartstene, H. J. , commands the relief ship for Dr. Kane, 87 ; naval record, 91 ; brings 
Kane to New York, 91. 

Hayes, Isaac I., Dr., surgeon of the Advance, 68; explorations with Kane, 77; commands 
the expedition of 1860, 132; crosses Melville Bay, 136; winters at Port Foulke, 137; 
reaches Cape Lieber, 147; discussion on "the open Polar Sea," 149; on the Glaciers, 
153; returns to the United States, 156; receives medals, 158. 

Hazen, W. B., General, U. S. A., co-operates with International Polar Commission, 534; 
instructions to Greely, 538 ; to Ray, 552. 

Hendrick, Hans, joins Kane, 69; journey with Hayes, 72; account of Sonntag's death, 140; 
joins the Polaris, 275; his own narrative, 141. 

Henrietta and Jeannette Islands discovered by DeLong, .395. 

Henry, Joseph, Professor, aids the second Grinnell expedition, 65; endorses Arctic ex- 
plorations, 526, 528, 534. 

Herald Island visited by Kellett, 453; by Rodgers, 125; by DeLong, 379; by Hooper, 453; 
by Berry, 477. 

Holsteinborg visited by DeHaven, 59; by Hall, 168; by McClintock, 169. 

Hooper, C. L., Captain, Revenue Marine Steam Cutter, first cruise, 429. 

Hudson, W. L., Lieutenant, commands the Peacock, 500; land seen by, 509. 

Hunt, W., Secretary of Navy, convenes Relief Board for DeLong, 474; telegram to Mel- 
ville, 413; to Harber, 408. 

Hydrographic Office, United States, charts of the Arctic sea, 115. 

Ice of the Arctic described by Hooper, 439; by Powell, 555. 
Ice of the Antarctic described by Wilkes, 522. 
Icebergs met by Kane, 62, 70; by Hayes, 134; by Hall, 172. 
Irving, Lieutenant, R. N., grave discovered by Schwatka, 353. 

Jeannette, the, purchased by Mr. Bennett, 364; brought round the Horn, 365; equipped 
at San Francisco, 372; officers' roll, 373; reaches Cape Serdze Kamen, 377; in the 
pack, 378; zigzag course northwest, 388; crushed, 398. 

Juniata, the, sails for relief of Hall, 324. 

Kane, E. K., Dr., surgeon of the first Grinnell expedition, 47; naval record, 48; surgeon 
to United States Embassy, China, 51; in Mexico, 52; joins DeHaven, 47; notes of 



INDEX. 



675 



geographical discovery, 60; commands second Grinnell expedition, 68; in Rensselaer 
Harbor, 73; explores the Great Glacier, 76, 95; fails to reach Beechey Island, 81; 
rescued by Ilartstene, 89; report to Secretary of Navy, 95; graphic sketches, 62, 100, 
102; receives medals from Royal Geographical Society and Paris Geographical Society, 
105; death, 105. 

Kane, John P., Dr., describes the navigation of Melville Bay, 92. 

Kennedy Channel, Kane's exploration, 87. 

Kennedy, .T. P., Secretary of the Navy, aids Kane, 67. 

Kern, E. W., artist, 110. 

Key-low-tik and Ken-toon performers, 217. 

Kislingbury, F. F., Lieutenant, of Franklin Bay Expedition, 537, 541. 

Knorr, E. R., assistant draughtsman on the Vincennes, 122; observations on the cruise, 129. 

Kiimlien, Mr., naturalist of the Florence, 536. 

Kuro Siwo, the waning influence of, 367. 

Lady Franklin Bay, station at, 537. 

Lesseps, M. Ferd., de. President Societe de Geographic, address on presenting the medal 

to Schwatka, 361. 
Littleton Island, visited by Kane, 70; by Hartstene, 94; by the Proteus, 541. 
Lockwood, James B., Lieutenant of Franklin Bay expedition, 537, 541, 544. 
Long, Thomas, first visits Wrangell Land, 460. 
Lovell, W. J., Midshipman, U. S. N., attached to first Grinnell expedition, 47; to the 

relief ship Rescue, 91. 

Maury, M. F., assists first Grinnell expedition, 44; the second expedition, 65; endorses 
the. object of Arctic expeditions, 525, .561, 

McClintock, Sir Leopold, R. N., crossing the North water, 54. 

Medals awarded to Kane, 105; to Hayes, 158; to Hall, 333; to Schwatka, 362. 

Melville, G. W., Chief Engineer, naval record, 379; letter from St. Lawrence Bay, 376; 
boat journey to Herald Island, 380; to Henrietta Island, 396; rigs a windmill pump, 
387; commands the whaleboat, 406; searches for DeLong, 413; for Lieutenant Chipp, 
410; returns to United States, 418; receives a letter from General Tchernaieff, 427. 

Melville Bay, crossing of, by DeHaven, 54; by Kane, 70; by Hayes, 136; by McClintock, 136. 

Meteorological Stations, under the International Commission, 531-535. 

Miller, Senator, advocates first Grinnell expedition, 46. 

Morton, William, reports an open Polar sea, 77. 

Mount Wollaston and the Vigilant, search for, by Hooper, 432. 

Muir, John, Professor, exploration of Herald Island, 454, 456. 

Murdaugh, W., passed Midshipman on the Advance, 48. 

Museum, National, the, collections received by, 517, 527. 

Musk ox, capture of, 264. 

Nares, Captain George, R. N., commends Hans, 69. ' 

Naval Officers' Record of first Grinnell expedition of relief ships for Kane, 91; of the Vin- 
cennes, 111; of DeLong's expedition, 476; of Wilkes', 496. 

Neptune, cruise of the, 545. 

Nichol, Y\^ L., Assistant Surgeon Vincennes, 111. 

Nindemann and Noros sent forward by DeLong, 412. 

North Water, the crossing of, 54, 1-36. 

Northwest Passage, origin of the problem of, 21; attempts for by Cabot, Verrazanl, 
Cartier, Davis, Hudson, and Baffin, 22; by Cook, 23; by the Argo and the Diligence, 
25, 26; by Franklin, 33; by the relief ships, 35. 



576 i:ndex. 

Observatory, Astronomical, Kane's, 73. 

Osborn, Admiral, R. N., commends DeHaven, 50; endorses Arctic exploration, 409. 

Palmer's Land, 494. 

Pavy, O., Dr., Assistant Surgeon of Station Lady Franklin Bay, 537, 541, 543. 

Peabody, Mr., of London, contributes to second Grinnell expedition, 65. 

Pendulum, Dr. E. Bessels', 306. 

Penguins, 505. 

Pennsylvania Historical Society, the Penn papers, 27. 

Petropolovski visited by the Yincennes, 116. 

Phipps, Captain, voyage, 23. 

Polaris, the, sails from New London, 270; reaches 82° 16', 280; drift of, 284; anchored, 

286; attempts to go north, 312; carried from the floe, 316; abandoned, 327; sunken, 226. 
Polar, open sea, the, advocated by Maury, 49; reported seen by Morton, 79; Kane's 

judgment of it, 98; Hayes' discussion, 149; Nares', 151. 
Pole, the North, voyages for, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34. 
Porpoise, the brig, loss of, 112. 
Potts, S. J., Jr., lost at sea, 112. 

Preston, Secretary of Navy, instructions to DeHaven, 48. 
Proteus, the voyage of, 1881, 538; of 1883, 548; crushed, 549. 
Proven visited by DeHaven, 59. 
Putnam, C. F., U. S. N., 476, 483. 

Ravenscraig, the, rescues the Polaris party, 327. 

Pay, P. H., Lieutenant, U. S. A., station at Point Barrow, 547, 552. 

Eaynor, G. W., visits Wrangell Land, 464. 

Reily, W., Acting Lieutenant, lost at sea, 112. 

Reindeer seen by Schwatka, 356. 

Relief ship for Kane, the Release and the Arctic under Hartstene and Simms, 86, 88, 91. 

Rensselaer Harbor, the Advance moored in, 71 : visited by Hayes, 72. 

Rescue, the, loaned by Grinnell to DeHaven, 47 ; wrecked, 174. 

Resolutions by United States Congress for DeHaven' s expedition, 44; for relief of Dr. 
Kane, 86. 

Rew^ards by United States to natives at St. Lawrence Bay, 484; by the Czar to the Isprav- 
niks and natives who assisted Melville, 427. 

Ringgold, Cadwalader, commands the exploring expedition of 1853, 108; returns to United 
States on sick leave. 111. 

Robeson, Geo., Instructions to Hall, 271; Robeson Channel named by Hall, 280; exam- 
ined, 288. 

Rodgers, John, Lieutenant, exploration in the Arctic Seas, 108, 131; sails in the Han- 
cock, 109 ; succeeds to the command of exploring expedition, 11 1 ; surveys North Pacific, 
114; Northern cruise, 116; sails over the reported position of Plover Island, 125; ap- 
proaches Wrangell Land, 128; returns to San Francisco, 129; report not published, 
114, 131. 

Rodgers, the cruise of, 473; burned, 482. 

Roe, F. A., Commodore, Lieutenant on the Vincennes, and naval record. 111. 

Ross, James, Captain, receives Wilkes' chart, 513; commendation of Wilkes, 516. 

Rosse, Dr. , surgeon of the Corwin, notes of optical illusions, 438. 

Russell, J. H., Captain, Lieutenant on the Vincennes, and naval record. Ill; boat land- 
ing at Glassenapp, 119; astronomical observations, 121. 

St. Johns, Newfoundland, visited by DeHaven and Kane, 68, 



INDEX. 577 

St. Lawrence Island, visited by Rodgers, 119; by Hooper, 430; and by DeLong, 376. 

Schoonmaker, C. M., Commander, brings the floe party to Washington, 323. 

Schott, C. A., discusses Kane's observations, 74; Hayes', 137. 

Schubert's death, 76. 

Schuetze, Master, sent out for the bodies of DeLong and officers, 407. 

Schwatka, F., Lieutenant, sails from New York, 347; crosses the Wager and Back river, 
351; finds Hall's cairn, 352; finds Lieutenant Irving's remains, 353; explores King- 
William Land, 354; sledge journey of, 356; return to United States, 360; receives the 
Roquette medal, 362. , 

Scientific corps of the North Polar expedition of 1871, of Wilkes' expedition, 498. 

Scoresby, Captain, reports of open water in the Arctic, 30. 

Sea, an open Polar, advocated by Maury, 49; by Kane, 68, 97; by Hayes, 149; denied by 
Richards, 151 ; by Nares, 152. 

Seals, mode of capturing described by Hall, 194; United States revenue from Alaska, 560. 

Secretary of the Navy Preston's instructions to DeHaven, 48. 
'' " '' Kennedy's instructions to Kane, 68. 

" " " Dobbin's instructions to Hartstene, 91. 

" '' " Toucey's report on the cruise of the Vincennes, 114. 

" " " Thompson's instructions to DeLong, 369. 

" " '' Chandler convenes Relief Board, 563. 

Semiavine Strait, 128. 

Seward, Senator, advocates Grinnell expedition, 46. 

Sherman, O. T., meteorologist of the Florence, 636. 

Sherman, Secretary, instructions to Hooper, 429. 

Shock's, Commodore, truss, 382. 

Simms, C. C, Lieutenant, commands the Arctic; naval record, 91; visits Cape Alex- 
ander, 93. 

Skin scraping by Sek-Koons, 220. 

Smithsonian Institution, aid to Kane's expedition, 67; publication of Kane's results, 74; 
aid to Hayes' expedition, 133; publication of Dr. Hayes' results, 160. 

Smith, Watson, Acting Master of the Advance, 91. 

Societe de Geographic awards medal to Kane, 105; to Hayes, 158; to Hall, 333; to 
Schwatka, 362 ; notes on meteorological stations, 532. 

Sonntag, August, astronomer of Kane's expedition, 68; his observatory, 75; astronomer 
to Hayes' expedition, 133; death, 138; Hans' account of it, 140; his grave visited by 
Bessels and Bryan, 142, 

Spoon, Franklin's, sent to Miss Cracroft, 349. 

Stevens, H. K., Lieutenant, commands the Hancock, 111; recommends further sur- 
veys, 130. 

Stimpson, Wm., naturalist, 110. 

Stoney, Lieutenant, U. S. N., distributes rewards to the Tchuktchis, 484. 

Stuart, J. H., Assistant Surgeon, lost at sea, 112. 

Stuart, W. D., draughtsman, 110. 

Tagliabue, N. Y., contributes instruments to Hayes' expedition, 133. 
Taylor, Z., President, message to Congress, 43. 

Tchuktchis described by officers of the Vincennes, 120; by Hovgaard, 120. 
Tessiussak (or Tessuissak) visited by Hayes, 136. 
Thompson, R. W., Secretary Navy, instructions to DeLong, 369. 
Tigress, the cruise of, 325. 

Too-koo-litoo joins Hall, 176; accompanies second expedition, 206; loses her babe, 246; 
sails on the Polaris, 270; notice of, 340. 



y/. 



578 INDEX. 

Tyson, Geo. E., sails with Hall, 270; rescued by the Tigress, 323; commands the Flor- 
ence, 535. 

United States Centennial Arctic exhibit, 104. 

Upernavik visited by DeHaven, 59; by Kane, 89; by Hayes, 135. 

Van Wyck, W. W., lost at sea, 112. 

Vincennes, the flag-ship of Commodore Kinggold, 108; Arctic cruise under Rodgers, 114; 

extracts from log book, 126. 
Vreeland, B., Surgeon of the Rescue, 47. 

Whalers, the pioneers of discovery, 494. 

Wildes, Commander, U. S. N., of the Yantic, 548, 551. 

Wilkes, C. F., Lieutenant, commands Antarctic expedition, 495; officers' record, 496; 

sails from Sydney, 501; discovers land, 508; receives medal from Royal Geographical 

Society, London, 514; his summary of the cruise, 519; volumes published by Congress, 

521 ; notes on the ice, 522. 
Williams and Haven aid Hall, 166. 
Willis, Hon. B. A., letter from Professor Henry, 5-34. 
Wrangell Land, seen by Wrangell, 120, 124; by Rodgers, 128; by Hooper, 436; drifted past 

by DeLong, 467; visited by Berry, 478. 
Wright, C, botanist of the Antarctic expedition, 110. 

Zane, a. v., Passed Assistant Engineer on the Rodgers, 477; accompanies Putnam, with 
Hunt and Castillo, 483. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




